Web of Deceit
by ILETUDRIVE
Summary: A variation of the storylines that could have come out of the car accident featuring Gia, Courtney and Elizabeth. Will feature most of the cast, and a few surprises as well.
1. Jail = Hell

Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters. They are owned by the TIIC of General Hospital. They just aren't used properly.

Feedback: Well I would just love to hear it, good or bad. Please let me know what you think.

Author's Notes: I wrote this in response to a challenge on another board. This is written in soap style, quick moving plot, cliffhangers, etc. It will feature quite a lot of the cast, so if you don't see your favorite right away, keep reading they may show up. This is based on the idea of the car accident between Elizabeth, Gia and Courtney and a different and I think more interesting result to come out of it. I think it will be quite a ride.

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Web of Deceit

~General Hospital ER~

"What do we have?" Dr. Eve Lambert asked, crossing to the gurney as soon as it crashed through the door.

"A female, approximately 21 years old. Minor head trauma, her pupils are responsive if a little dazed. There are minor lacerations on her face and bruises." Paramedic Steve Grey explained. "She's been semi-conscious the whole way in. Frank is bringing in the major trauma."

Eve nodded and after a quick check of the girls' eyes she stepped back from the gurney. "Take her to exam room 2," she turned to address the nurse. "Amy check her for a concussion, and draw some blood for a drug and alcohol test." She wrinkled her nose at the smell coming off the girl. "Not that she needs it, but we need the official count."

Amy nodded and followed the gurney.

"What's this one's story?" Eve pulled on another pair of gloves and moved closer to the bleeding girl on the gurney that had just entered the ER.

"Major head trauma. Numerous lacerations around her head and neck. There are glass shards still embedded on the right side of her face. Including a particularly nasty piece right by her eye." Paramedic Frank Scanlon scanned his chart. "Her pupils are sluggish, and she's been unconscious since we arrived on scene, her pulse is slow and thready. There is also some swelling in her abdomen."

Eve nodded and probed the stomach area, even unconscious the girl moved in response. "Okay get her to Trauma 1, we need a type and cross match. Alert OR to get a trauma team with an eye surgeon standing by to remove the glass. But first page Dr. Thornhart, we need to check her spleen. It seems like it's ruptured. If that's the case, we need to remove it first before it bursts." Eve shook her head. "Damn what a night."

~*~*~*~

"Detective we got the results back for the blood and alcohol tests we ran on the driver of that wreck out on Bayview road." A lab technician called out.

Detective Alex Garcia stopped before he could enter the lounge and held out a hand for the file. "What are they?"

"Her blood alcohol level was .11 which is well over the legal limit," the tech glanced down at his papers. "She also tested positive for PCP. The amount in her system, tells us she ingested a rather large dose within an hour of getting behind the wheel of the car."

"Damn are you sure?" Garcia asked in surprise.

"Positive. With that much alcohol and drugs in her system, it's a wonder more people weren't hurt during her crazy trip."

"Thanks for making this a priority." Garcia said absently before moving to the payphone. This put a whole different spin on things and he was going to need a warrant before he proceeded.

~*~*~*~

"You're going to be okay." Bobbie Spencer murmured before checking the chart. "Just hold on a little while longer." She turned around when the door opened behind her and Detective Garcia walked in the room. "Detective this really isn't a good time."

"Dr. Lambert said she's well enough to leave." Garcia explained.

Bobbie nodded reluctantly. "Yes. But can't you wait before questioning her?"

"It's okay Bobbie, I'll talk to him." A soft voice interrupted her.

Garcia focused on the girl on the bed. "Elizabeth Webber I am placing you under arrest for driving under the influence, reckless endangerment, and possession of a controlled substance."

"What?" Elizabeth's mouth dropped open in surprise. She hoped that the words were some awful mistake, brought on by her headache. But when she saw the serious look on his face she realized they weren't.

~*~*~*~

Elizabeth thought she was prepared, but she still flinched when the camera flashed blinding her.

"Turn to the left." A bored sounding voice ordered. "Hold the sign to your shoulder and turn to the left."

Blinking at the spots in her eyes she did as she was told. A part of her still believed that this was all some hideous nightmare. The fog her brain seemed to be in, helped her think that. Nothing felt real to her. At least not yet.

"Turn to the right."

Soon she would wake up on her couch in her studio, or even better in the big bed she'd had on Sonny's island. Somewhere, anywhere, but here.

"Come on." The matron grabbed her arm. "I don't have all night, you know. Now give me your hand."

Elizabeth held it out and didn't even flinch when the guard jerked on her arm to rub her fingers over the slimy inkpad. She watched with detached interest as first one finger then the next made an imprint on a white piece of paper. When it was free she brought her hand closer to her face, eyeing the black smears warily as the officer did the same thing with her other hand.

"Here." The matron shoved a paper towel in her hand. "Wipe it off."

Elizabeth frowned at the towel in her hand and after a long minute she began to rub at her hands. The blackness came off on the white towel and the contrast was sharp to her artistic eye.

The matron grabbed her arm and pulled the non-responsive girl to a gray metal door and pushed her inside. Elizabeth glanced around the tiny room. It was barely bigger than a closet. An old beat-up green filing cabinet was against one wall but other than that there wasn't any furniture in it.

"Strip."

The first whisper of unease went through Elizabeth as she turned and looked at the woman officer.

"I said strip." The matron ordered pulling on a rubber glove. "Don't make me do it for you Princess."

Reality crashed into Elizabeth hard and she fought back the tears as she mutely complied.

~*~*~*~

"What do you mean I have to stay here?" Elizabeth asked huskily. Her tears had come and gone leaving her hollow.

"I'm sorry Elizabeth." Garcia said and he honestly was sorry for her. "It's too late for you to be arraigned tonight. The earliest opening is tomorrow morning after 9:00."

"I have to spend the night in jail?" She kept her eyes on the table. Her cheeks were still red from the humiliation she had recently endured. And the memory of that, made her unable to meet his eyes.

"Yes." Garcia couldn't help but feel for the girl. He had known her for years and at one time had been fairly close to her, in the aftermath of her reporting her rape. He shook his head, she certainly had fallen a long way, since then. "You won't be in general population. You'll be in a holding tank."

Elizabeth flinched.

"Look I'll keep it empty for as long as I can. If it's a slow night maybe you'll have the tank to yourself all night."

Elizabeth bit her lip and nodded, then for the first time she looked at him. "How is she?" 

"She survived the surgery. They did have to remove her spleen. Right now they are working on removing the glass from her face." He didn't mention the possibility that one of the pieces of glass might have severed her optic nerve, rendering her blind in her right eye. They didn't know for sure yet and Elizabeth was dealing with enough right now.

Tears pricked the back of her eyes turning them into jeweled sapphires but they didn't fall. "Thank you for telling me."

Garcia pushed back from the table and headed for the door, his hand was on the doorknob when he hesitated. "I'll get the matron to take you to a cell. While your waiting I'll send your Grandmother in."

"Thank you."

Again he hesitated, keeping his back to her. "Elizabeth I'll only say this once. Get a lawyer, a good one. First offense or not the charges your facing are pretty serious." With that he left her alone.

"Detective?"

Garcia smothered a groan when he saw the worried face of Audrey Hardy. "You can speak to her, but I can only give you five minutes."

"Please. Isn't there any way that she can come home? She'll be with me, and I'll bring her to the Court tomorrow." Audrey pleaded with him.

"I'm sorry Mrs. Hardy it's procedure." He awkwardly patted her hand. "The charges are serious, but she will get bail tomorrow. My gut tells me that this was an accident brought on by bad judgment on her part. But when she does get out of here, she's going to need a lot of help. She's going down the wrong track, and needs someone to help pull her off of it."

Audrey stiffened at the reprimand of her granddaughter and eyed him coolly. "I would like to see her now."

"Five minutes." He reminded her then opened the door. Audrey didn't acknowledge him and brushed past him quickly to get inside the interrogation room. With a deep sigh he sat at his desk and studied the open file there.

From the preliminary information they had gathered so far the accident, was just that, an accident. And all the evidence pointed directly to Elizabeth Webber, a drunk and stoned Elizabeth Webber. He glared at the phone when it began to ring. Closing his eyes he leaned back in the chair before grabbing it. "Garcia."

As he listened his eyes opened slowly, then he sat up and began to scribble notes as the voice on the other end continued. This wasn't good.

~*~*~*~

"Do you need anything Elizabeth?" Audrey could see the pain in her eyes. "An aspirin perhaps," she suggested then immediately wished she hadn't.

"My own bed?" Elizabeth replied with a soft smile, then shook her head, in spite of the pain she was in she continued. "I'm okay Garcia explained what is going on. He said I'll just have to be here overnight, until the arraignment tomorrow." She bit her lip and considered her options, his final words to her lingered in her ears. "Will you… I mean could you… that is if…."

"Elizabeth what are you trying to ask me?"

"I'll get out if someone bails me out. Will you?"

Audrey's eyes widened in surprise at her granddaughter's low question. She studied the smaller woman in the bright orange jumpsuit that washed all the color from her already too pale face. Elizabeth was a grown woman, whether Audrey wanted to see it or not, but at that moment she sounded so much like the scared 15 year old asking if she was going to get sent away, that it broke her heart.

"Of course I'll bail you out," Audrey patted her hand and studied her eyes, when Elizabeth finally looked at her. They were still a little unfocused, an aftereffect of the drugs, and the head injury she knew. "There will be one rule though. Something I must insist on."

"What?"

"You must enter a treatment facility." Audrey's tone was serious. "The alcohol can be excused, your young and you made a mistake. But the drugs," she shook her head, missing Elizabeth's gasp of surprise. "I thought you had more sense then that. I knew you were upset about what was going on with Lucky, but surely you must see that drugs are never the answer."

Stunned Elizabeth could only gape at her while Audrey spoke. Finally she found her voice. "I'm not doing drugs."

Audrey's sigh was full of disappointment and she got to her feet when the matron entered the room. "I wish you wouldn't lie Elizabeth. A large amount of PCP was found in your system, the tests they ran on you after the accident confirms it."

PCP? Her mind reeled and the guard too impatient to wait yanked her to her feet and began to lead her away. The clang of the key in the lock jarred her back to reality and she found her voice. "Gram I wasn't doing any drugs. I don't do drugs. There has to be a mistake."

Elizabeth caught the doorframe stilling her forced progress out of the room. "Gram you have to believe me. I never took PCP or any other drug…Ouch!" She dropped her hand when the matron smacked her fingers with a nightstick. "Please Gram."

Audrey stared after her granddaughter with a puzzled look on her face. She wanted nothing more than to believe her. It didn't make any sense for Elizabeth to lie about being on drugs, not when the tests already said she was. But she had to be lying. After all evidence couldn't lie. 

Could it?

~*~*~*~

"Miss Webber?" A funny looking man with a crew cut, bow tie, horn-rimmed glasses, and what appeared to be a nervous winking tic with his left eye held out his hand. "I'm Louis Friend, your public defender."

Elizabeth shook his hand then quickly dropped the clammy hand after a limp shake from the man. She was nearing the end of her rope. Besides the bruises and the headache that she was feeling, she also had the nasty aftereffects of a hangover. Her eyes felt gritty, her throat was scratchy and she couldn't help but wonder if her tongue was swollen, because it certainly felt bigger.

She was also exhausted. For a while she'd had the cell to herself, then about 2:30 the participants of a bar clearing fight at the Kit Kat Klub had joined her and she had soon been relegated to the ice-cold concrete floor. She passed the rest of the night with both eyes opened and watching her new cellmates warily, trying to remember what had happened the night before. But so far she had drawn a blank.

"Miss Webber?" 

Louis Friend's nasally toned voice drew her attention back to him. "Yes?"

"I was saying the procedure is simple, the clerk will read the charges and the Judge will ask you how you plead, either guilty or not guilty. Then we'll move on to the discussion of bail." He pulled a file from an overflowing briefcase. "I see that this is your third offense…"

"No I've never been arrested before."

"Hmm…" he studied the folder. "Sorry wrong Elizabeth," he pulled another file out. "Alright this is your first offense. That will help us with bail."

He looked up from the folder and studied her closely. "Can you cry on cue? With your wholesome look, a few tears would definitely help." He frowned as he studied the dress she had on. "Maybe a sweater. We want him to think of you as a good girl who made a mistake, not a hooker on the prowl for a hit."

"But…"

He steamrolled right over her. "Keep the bangs off of your forehead let him see the bandage," he pushed at her hair. "Damn no blood on it. See what you can do about getting some there before we start. Whatever you do don't smile, don't speak unless directed and try to cry." He tutted under his breath. "This would look so much better if you weren't in that dress."

Elizabeth looked down at her dress, it had been one of her favorites. The two-toned violet dress with spaghetti straps had looked good on her. Now though it was splattered with blood and dirt, there was also a long tear on the left side that exposed the run in her stockings, as well as a good deal of thigh.

"Elizabeth I've been looking for you." Audrey rushed over to them and only stopped when the matron shook her head in warning.

"Gram." Elizabeth wanted to hug her but the cuffs on her wrists and the restraining hand of the guard on her arm stopped her.

Louis Friend turned his attention to Audrey. "You're her Grandmother?" He ran a critical eye over her conservative, classy appearance and his expression brightened. "Audrey Hardy right? I've seen you in the paper regarding the work you do at General Hospital." He rubbed his hands together. "This is great. My life just got a lot easier. Can I have that?"

Without waiting for her reply he took a sweater from Audrey and draped it over Elizabeth's shoulders. "Put it on as soon as the cuffs are removed, and for god's sake fasten it."

"You," he turned back to Audrey. "Make sure your sit directly behind Elizabeth. Have a Kleenex in your hand at all times. Oh and if it starts to look bad, kind of clutch your heart and sigh loudly."

"It's time." The guard informed then before taking Elizabeth's arm to lead her back to the holding pen until it was her turn on the docket sheet. Both Elizabeth and Audrey were too surprised at the actions of her lawyer to do anything but comply.

~*~*~*~

"You're Honor before we begin. I need to amend the charges the state are bringing against Miss Webber."

Judge Gold tipped his glasses down his nose and studied the polished man in front of him. Between the gold of the man's obviously bleached hair, and the shine on his black leather shoes, he was getting a headache and it wasn't even ten yet. "I figured as much," he reached for his water. "You don't do DUI cases very often Attler."

Duncan "The Rattler" Attler smiled at the compliment the Judge had unwittingly given him, showcasing the perfectly capped teeth that his investment of $10,000 had given him. "Some new information has come to light as to Miss Webber's motives your Honor." He handed a folder to Louis Friend.

"Get on with it." The Judge ordered testily.

"We are amending the complaint to driving under the influence, possession of a controlled substance, reckless endangerment." He paused then, as was his trademark, to draw out the anticipation, before striking out with the fatal blow, much like a snake did. "And the attempted premeditated murder of Gia Campbell."

"What?" Louis Friend shot to his feet. "You're Honor the defense knows nothing of any attempted murder charges, especially premeditated ones."

"Of course you wouldn't," Attler drawled. "I did tell you the information just came to light, and as for a defense," he sneered. "Somehow Louis I doubt you'll be that for much longer."

"Snipe on your own time gentlemen, and I use that term loosely." The Judge interrupted them crossly. "Since you're here Attler I assume you have more evidence to back up this amendment to the charge, then what I have read so far."

"The supplemental report is on your desk. This information was just brought to my attention by the police a little over an hour ago. As you can see the charges are warranted."

"Shut up Counselor." The Judge began to browse the file his clerk had handed him a few minutes before.

Elizabeth couldn't seem to wrap her mind around the words attempted premeditated murder. She was still trying to understand why people thought she had been using drugs, when she hadn't been. Now the word murder had pushed all thoughts of the drug charge out of her head.

"Very well." Judge Gold shut the folder. "Please rise Miss Webber."

Louis poked her in the ribs and she got to her feet. 

"Please read the charges as amended." The Judge ordered the clerk.

Elizabeth only half heard the charges. The stunned sensation she had been feeling was slowly fading, leaving behind a feeling of dread. The horrifying realization of what was happening to her, was settling in the pit of her stomach leaving her ice cold.

"Miss Webber." The Judge snapped. "How do you plead?"

"Not," her voice wobbled and she firmed it. "Not guilty."

"So noted." The Judge made a mark on his paper. "Now moving on to the issue of bail…"

"If it pleases the Court the state has a recommendation to make on that."

"Why am I not surprised?" The Judge leaned back in his chair. Christ he needed an alka seltzer. "Dazzle me Attler, if you can."

Attler relished the challenge, especially when he knew he would win. "We request that bail be denied your Honor."

Audrey cried out in distress and Louis Friend shot to his feet again, much like a poptart clearing a toaster. "Your Honor this is absurd. Miss Webber has never even had so much as a parking ticket before last night. To deny her bail is not only wrong it is morally reprehensible."

"I tend to agree with you Mr. Friend." The Judge leaned on his elbows and looked at the overbearing prosecutor. "So far I'm not impressed."

"Your Honor. As it says in my report Miss Webber only recently returned to the states from parts unknown, after having been missing for months. Her absence was due to the fact that she had disappeared to fake her own death," he moved towards the empty jury box in practice for the trial to come. "In fact during those months **no one**, not even her family, knew where she was, or if she was even alive. Another point in her disfavor," he sneered the word slightly. "Is her close association with Sonny Corinthos and Jason Morgan. It has been confirmed by sources that Mr. Corinthos even arranged for her 'death.' Now if that is not a flight risk," he grinned then, looking very much like his nickname at that moment. "I'm sure I don't know what is."

The Judge turned to look at Louis Friend.

"You're Honor her alleged associations with Mr. Corinthos have no bearing whatsoever on the charges she is currently facing." Louis paled and tried to decipher the quick notes he had taken when he had spoken with Elizabeth, before the Judge had called the case. "Her Grandmother, Audrey Hardy, is a strong pillar of the community, her fiancé is also…"

"Her **ex**-fiancé has also faked his own death," Attler interrupted him. "And she left him at the altar a few weeks ago. And as for her Grandmother," he pulled a form from his immaculate briefcase. "I have here a missing person's report that Mrs. Hardy filed on Elizabeth Webber during her months long absence. A form that eventually led to the speculation of Miss Webber's death."

Elizabeth turned back to look at her Grandmother, and Audrey bowed her head. Guilt swamped her, she'd had no idea that Audrey had been that worried about her.

"Your Honor," Attler moved towards the bench. "I admit that on paper Elizabeth Webber is a model citizen, and she certainly looks appealing enough. But let's go past the surface. She has lied to everyone in her life, repeatedly, she faked her own death, with no thoughts as to what that would do to the people she left behind. People like her devoted Grandmother," he pointed at Audrey. "And let's not forget her actions. Actions, which have brought us here today."

"There is another beautiful young woman who is in a hospital bed as a result of these actions. Gia Campbell a once successful model, is now horribly scarred on her face, she has lost partial vision in her right eye. Her spleen had to be removed, rendering her more susceptible to illnesses for the rest of her life. And all of this was done maliciously, and with malice of forethought by Miss Webber." 

He turned away from Elizabeth whom he had been bearing down on while speaking of Gia's injuries, and focused on Judge Gold. He waited a beat longer then struck, like the snake he was. "I would hate to see her get bail, only to have her disappear," he moved closer and lowered his voice. "Or perhaps marry her way out of trouble," the words were only a whisper but when the Judge flinched he knew that he had heard them.

Judge Gold snapped to alert in his chair and frowned at Attler through disgust filled eyes. He had never forgotten that he had been the one who had granted Sonny Corinthos bail a year and a half ago, and Corinthos had used that opportunity to marry the sole eyewitness against him, thereby killing any chance of conviction. Even if he could forget it, the people around him loved to remind him of it.

"Bail is denied." The Judge held up his hand. "I will entertain a motion to reconsider after Miss Webber's attorney has a chance to review the evidence. Matron take Miss Webber into custody and return her to jail," he scanned his calendar. "This case is set for hearing on February 11, before Judge Irons," he hit his gavel. "Next case."

"Mr. Friend?" Elizabeth asked meekly.

"Jesus you could have warned me," he grumbled shoving notebooks into his briefcase. "Corinthos, premeditated murder," he shuddered. "You make sure you tell Mr. Corinthos that I wasn't prepared. That this wasn't my fault. You weren't honest with me." With that warning he hurried away almost knocking Audrey over in his haste.

"Gram?" Elizabeth asked, tears stinging her eyes.

"I'll get help." Audrey cried as the guard slapped the cuffs on her granddaughter's wrists.

Elizabeth flinched and began to move when the guard ordered her too. This couldn't be happening. It had to be a terrible mistake.

The Matron grinned menacingly at her. "It seems we'll be seeing a lot of each other Princess. I have to tell you, you're pretty popular at the jail right now. Gia's family to one of our own, and well, we don't like anyone hurting family."


	2. With friends like these...

Disclaimer: I don't own the rights to these characters. TIIC of GH do. They just chose not to use them in an interesting capacity so I am trying too.

Feedback: Would be greatly appreciated. Like it or hate it let me know.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

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Web of Deceit

Part II

****

~Jail~

Elizabeth knew that if she spent one more minute staring at the drab gray walls she would go insane, but another minute passed, and then another, and so on. They had taken her watch so she had no idea what time it was, it felt like hours since she had been put in her cell, her biggest fear was that in reality only minutes had passed.

Her cell. God, that was a strange thought. This wasn't the drunk tank, or a holding pen, it was a cell, and for the foreseeable future it was her home. It was hers because she couldn't remember what had happened to her the night before.

She closed her eyes and tried to force the memories again. Flashes had been coming to her. Flashes like arguing with Gia, laughing with Gia, food, screams, then nothing until she became fully alert in the hospital.

"Elizabeth?"

Startled she jumped off the cot and turned to look at the person on the other side of the bars. "Zander?"

"Hey," Zander saw the stunned look on her face and wasn't surprised. She wasn't the only one who was surprised that he was here to see her.

"What are you doing here?" As grateful as she was to see him, to see anyone, she couldn't help questioning him.

"I heard what happened to you. I wanted to see if you were okay."

Elizabeth moved closer and studied the fading bruises on his face. "Is what happened on the news?"

"Yeah," Zander shrugged. "Gia's a minor celebrity." And Attler was a publicity hound running for DA.

She closed her eyes and nodded weakly, she knew it would be, but it still hurt. "Do you know anything more about her injuries?"

"No." He glanced around uncomfortable at being back in the jail, although the place was quiet at the moment, he knew that could change in an instant. His flight instinct was already raging in him, yet he stayed.

"Why are you here? I mean I wouldn't exactly call us friends." She'd had time to think, and count her friends. She was a bit surprised that she could count all the people she considered friends on two hands and have a lot of fingers left over.

"I'm here because of Emily," he admitted finally. "You're her best friend, and she would be here for you, if she could," he shrugged. "Even though we're not together anymore I still felt like I should come. Besides it seems like you haven't been aiming all those looks of disapproval in my direction anymore, at least not as much, since you came back."

"Don't you mean since I was humiliated at my non-wedding?" She gripped the bars separating them.

"Well," he shuffled his feet and didn't reply.

She shook her head and swayed on her feet.

"Take it easy," Zander told her in concern. Her eyes flew open and he recognized the look in them. "It's the last of the drug working it's way out of your system. I bet your head feels cloudy at the moment, that's why it does, it should pass soon."

Elizabeth recoiled at his words. "I'm not on drugs."

Zander was a little surprised at her anger. "You don't have to yell. I'm just trying to help."

"I told you I'm not on drugs. I have never taken drugs and I would never take them," she paced away, only to stop and turn on him. "That's not true I have had drugs before," she advanced on him. "But not by choice. They were forced on me. By you."

Zander ran a hand through his hair yet met her gaze, they were long overdue for this conversation. "I was a different person then. I'm sorry I did that to you. The guy I was then doesn't exist anymore. I changed thanks to Emily."

"What would have happened that night, if I hadn't left with Lucky? To this day I don't remember a thing after I left with him."

"Nothing," he said shortly and at her raised eyebrow of disbelief he went on. "I'd seen you with Gia and I knew she had information on me. I also knew she was lying to me. I wanted to find out how much you knew, and who else knew, the drugs would loosen your tongue. I wasn't going to take advantage of you. I never gave a girl drugs to take advantage of them."

Elizabeth studied him for a long time looking for a lie, finally she sighed and moved back to the cot. "Is it hard to drug someone?"

"No. All you need is a second for their attention to be distracted. They look away, and the pills are in their drink before they can look back."

"Their drink? So it's best to put them in liquid."

"Yeah," he leaned against the bars. "What are you getting at?"

"I'm trying to figure out who drugged me and when," she closed her eyes again.

"Drug…"

He trailed off when she held up her hand. A faint memory was dancing on the edge of her brain.

__

A toast for the road.

To men. Who the hell needs them?

I do. It gets lonely in bed without them.

"Oh my god," Elizabeth whispered when the voices faded from her mind.

"Are you okay? Do you need a doctor?" Zander stepped back to call a guard.

"Sonny I need to see Sonny. Can you get him that message?" she hurried to the bars. "Please it's really important that I see him."

"Sure. Are you saying someone deliberately drugged you?" 

"Yes, and I think I remember who."

"I'll get him," Zander looked away when a loud yell came from one of the cells down the hall, followed by a crash. "I'm sure Sonny was going to come see you anyway."

Elizabeth jolted when the sound of screams and fighting sounded from down the hall.

Zander could see the naked fear in her eyes. "Look at me," he waited until she complied. "When it gets loud and crazy in here, when the walls begin to close in on you, close your eyes. Close them and picture something else. Your favorite memory, your favorite thing to do, your favorite place, your favorite person, concentrate on that so hard, until you can see everything just like a picture. When you can do that you don't hear anything else."

"Will that work?"

"It helped me when I was stuck here. It's hard, but you have to hold on to that." Zander turned when the guard behind him opened the door.

"Times up."

"I have to go Elizabeth."

Elizabeth jolted when she saw him leaving, at the moment he was her lifeline. "Zander thanks for coming."

Zander nodded. "I'll get Sonny."

The metallic sound of the doors closing rang out and she moved wearily back to her cot. The sound of cursing filled the air and she wrapped her arms around her knees and pressed her face into her thighs. She tried desperately to think of a good memory, but all she could do was wonder. Why had Zander come to see her, when none of her friends had?

****

~GH~

"Is there a surgical procedure I can have? I mean later on once my skin has healed some. Can you repair the damage then?" Gia asked softly.

"I'm sorry Gia. As of right now the technology necessary to repair the nerve hasn't been designed yet. The glass severed part of your optic nerve. You will be partially blind in your right eye." Dr. Tony Jones explained as gently as he could.

Gia heard the words but barely reacted to them. "I meant about my face. I'm a model. Is the scarring permanent?"

"We'll have to wait until the skin has healed some, to see if the nerve endings there will regenerate on their own. Surgery could be one option, but I need to caution you that even with reconstructive surgery there will be some scarring that can't be healed." Tony got to his feet. "Try not to think too much about that yet. We'll need time, before we can even find out if surgery is a viable option for you." He nodded to the others in the room. "If you have any further questions please let me know."

Gia looked over at her mother the minute he left. "Is this the part where you tell me I told you so?"

Aghast Florence got to her feet and moved to her daughter's side. "Of course not baby. Why would you ever think that?"

"You were the one that always told me I shouldn't model. That I shouldn't rely on my looks, because they would fade with time," she moved the facial muscles she could into a frown. "I knew it would happen eventually. I just didn't know it would happen this soon, and when it did, it would turn me into a freak."

"You are not a freak." Marcus Taggert joined his mother by the bed. "Gia you will always be a beautiful woman. You light up from the inside."

"Spare me the pep talk." Gia snapped and closed her eyes. "I want to be alone."

"Gia you need to concentrate on the most important thing. And that is that you're alive. Baby you could have died." Florence pressed.

"Please mom."

"Mom let's go." Marcus took her arm and led her to the door. "We'll be back later."

Gia kept her eyes closed even when she felt the mattress depress near her hip. "I want to be alone Nikolas."

Nikolas took her hand and brought it to his lips. "You'll never be alone Gia. We're in this together, we're in everything together from now on. Remember we promised that."

She tried to pull her hand away. "Please Nikolas I can't do this with you right now."

He kept a hold of her hand and pulled her engagement ring, the nurse had given him, from his pocket. "I wanted to return this to you." He slipped it on her finger and her eyes opened. "You don't get to take it off again."

Gia's eyes filled but she didn't say anything. He leaned forward to kiss her, and had to settle for touching her uninjured cheek, when she turned away.

"I love you Gia." He hesitated waiting for her to reply but she was silent. With a sigh he turned and left.

There was someone he needed to see.

Gia waited for the door to close before opening her eyes and looking at her ring. It was superficial of her, and she knew it must make her look like the vainest person in the world, but she was more concerned with the scars on her face then with her partial loss of sight.

She had always been the pretty one. The beautiful unattainable girl, the Face, and she had taken that for granted. And now it was gone. 

She hadn't seen her face yet. They wouldn't give her a mirror, it was too soon for her to see the damage. But she could feel her face. She could feel the muscles that she could no longer control. The scarring was bad, she didn't need a mirror to tell her that. She felt like she had lost part of her identity when they wrapped her face in bandages. She didn't know if she would ever get it back either, and with that realization the tears began to fall.

****

~Jail~

Elizabeth studied her hands. She had already flicked off all of the nail polish on one of her hands and was down to two fingers on her other. Then they would be bare. She barely remembered what it was like to have bare nails. She always took one color off and immediately put another back on.

While her fingers were busy doing this mindless chore, her mind kept reliving the memories. Memories that were slowly coming to her, memories of last night. They were disjointed but they were coming. She just had to put them together. Once she found them all, the puzzle would be complete, she just needed to be patient.

"Need a manicurist?"

Startled Elizabeth looked over and saw Nikolas leaning against the bars watching her. Thrilled to see her friend she leapt from the cot and hurried over to him. "God Nikolas, its so good to see you. I've been going crazy in here."

Nikolas looked past her into the cold gray cell. "I can imagine."

Confused at his cool tone, she gripped the bars. "How is Gia?"

"Gia?" he repeated the name and focused on her. "She'll live. No doubt to your dismay."

"What?"

"You must be disappointed. You tried to kill her after all. You tried and failed, she's alive and you're stuck here. You must really hate that."

"Nikolas you can't believe that," her eyes pleaded with her old friend. "You know I would never try to kill anyone."

"You didn't?" His hands covered hers on the bars. "That's not what the police say. It's not what the eyewitness at the restaurant says. Hell it's not even what you say in your journals."

"My," she shook her head in confusion. "I don't understand. No one has told me anything yet."

"You were always so jealous of her. When I think of all the times I got mad at Gia because of the way she treated you. And all along it was you who was in the wrong." He tightened his grip on her he hands and she winced.

"Nikolas…"

"You were jealous because she was named the Face of Deception, not you. You knew that the only reason you were even considered was because you were Lucky's girlfriend at the time." Fear and anger had him by the throat and the words flew out of his mouth. "I knew you could be calculating, but I never knew how much you could hate someone."

"You're hurting me," Elizabeth cried trying to wrench her hands free.

"I'm hurting you?" He cried out. "I can't hurt you. You have to feel in order to be hurt and you don't feel. You manipulate. I watched you manipulate Lucky for months when Jason was in town. And I saw first hand how calculating you could be when you came up with this plan to fool Helena…"

"It was your plan."

"But what I don't get is why Gia? Why do you hate her enough that you tried to kill her?"

"I didn't," Elizabeth hissed feeling afraid of Nikolas for the first time ever. "Let me explain."

"Explain what Elizabeth? Listen to you as you explain away the drugs in your studio. While you explain away what the valet overheard you saying, that you were going to kill the bitch tonight. Explain away the fact that an eyewitness said you deliberately aimed for the tree you hit last night. Listen while you try to explain the pictures of Gia you had in your studio. Pictures that show how you stalked her since the night of your wedding. How in those photos you crossed her face out in every one."

"I didn't do any of that," Elizabeth yelled then groaned when Nikolas increased the pressure on her hands. "Stop it."

"I don't believe you." Moving quickly he caught her off guard and shifted his grip from her hands to her biceps. "You are going to jail Elizabeth and you are going to rot there. No excuses that you try to come up will work. I'll see to that. You will be punished for trying to kill my fiancé," he shook her causing her to cry out. "For the damage you did do to her."

Tears slipped from her eyes she couldn't even recognize her friend in the furious mask of the man in front of her. "Please Nikolas."

"Don't waste your tears on me. They won't work, not anymore." He yanked on her arms puling her forward until she hit the bars and cried out in pain. A part of his mind was screaming at him in horrified shock, begging him to stop hurting her and listen to her. But another part of him, the part that had been surfacing more and more lately, didn't feel a thing when he saw her tears.

"Nikolas let her go." Lucky grabbed his brother from behind and pulled him away from the bars, forcing him to let go of her. "What are you doing?"

Nikolas shoved him back a step. "I was just getting things straight with Elizabeth."

"How by pounding them into her?" Lucky cried. "You need to leave man."

"Are you trying to defend her?" Nikolas demanded. "You've seen the evidence. You've heard Taggert. She deliberately tried to kill Gia, and you are standing there defending her?"

"I didn't say that," Lucky hedged.

Elizabeth's eyes widened as she stared at her former fiancé. Why wasn't he defending her? He knew her, he knew she wasn't capable of this. At one point he knew her better than anyone else. So why was he acting like he believed what Nikolas was saying about her?

Nikolas stepped closer to his brother. "You're going to have too choose Lucky. Because this time you can't have it both ways," he looked past him to Elizabeth. "Either you're with me, your family, or you are against me."

"Nikolas." Lucky called after him but it was too late, he was gone. He sighed heavily and turned to face Elizabeth. "Are you okay?"

"I can't believe he did that."

"He's upset. He's been at the hospital all night with Gia. It's been a stressful night for him, and everybody there," Lucky explained wearily.

Unpleasant thoughts and feelings were coming to her, while she stood there, rubbing at the bruises given to her by Nikolas, and listened to Lucky trying to excuse his actions. She didn't like what she was thinking so she interrupted him. "You know what Lucky? I had a rough night too. You see I spent my night in jail, and I'm still here, in case you hadn't noticed."

Lucky flushed at her rebuke. "I know."

"I thought you might have come to see me before now. Or at least come to my hearing this morning." Her head felt remarkably clear at the moment. She focused on Lucky and for once she studied him through eyes that weren't clouded by love, guilt, regret, or hope.

He flinched and shuffled closer to the bars. "I wanted to come, but we had a meeting with Dr. Jones then. He was telling us about Gia's condition. I had to be there for Nikolas."

"Oh." She felt stung and without even thinking about it she fired back. "I hope I didn't inconvenience you too much then, I'm glad you had time to drop by."

"Don't be like this Elizabeth," he pleaded. "I spoke to your Grandmother. I wouldn't have been able to see you much before now anyway."

Elizabeth nodded but didn't say anything. Standing there watching Lucky she felt like it was the first time she had really seen him in years, and she didn't like what she saw.

"I did want to talk to you," Lucky tugged on the back of his neck trying to figure out how to say this. "I wish you would have told me how you were feeling. I mean I would have been there for you more, if I knew how desperate things had become with you. I would have helped you."

She pressed a hand to her stomach, which was suddenly rolling. "Helped me?"

"Yes I knew you hadn't been acting like yourself. I knew that when you called off the wedding for no reason, and then kept drawing away from me. But I had no idea you felt so bad that you turned to drugs. Why didn't talk to me? I could have saved you, helped you."

"You think…" she trailed off in shock. Who was this guy in front of her? Because he was not the Lucky Spencer she once loved. "You think I'm doing drugs?"

"You can't hide it anymore Elizabeth. Now that everyone knows, its easy to see the signs we all missed," Lucky rocked on the balls of his feet and pressed his head against the bars. "I know drugs can make a person feel out of control. I don't know why you focused on Gia though. Was it because she told you about me the night of our wedding? Did you hate her for that? Because I don't blame you I was pretty mad at her too."

"Maybe I'm brainwashed." Elizabeth said causing him to look at her in surprise. "After all isn't that the excuse you always used? You used it when you attacked people and tried to kill them. You used it when you pushed me at Nikolas. Isn't that right?" she moved closer to the bars. "When you tried to kill Jason, Luke, Stefan, it was never really your fault because of the brainwashing. So maybe I'm brainwashed too. Did you ever think of that?"

Lucky goggled at her. "Elizabeth you know that I never meant to do those things, this is different you…"

She reached through the bars and shoved him back a step. The anger she had for him, the anger she had been pushing aside and burying for almost two years wouldn't be denied anymore. "You're saying I chose to do drugs, because I was so upset that you didn't love me anymore? You're saying I chose to try to kill Gia, because she had the balls to stop me from making the worst mistake of my life? Is that what your saying?"

Lucky looked at her in confusion when she put it like that, it did sound bad, but that was what the evidence said. And it would also explain why she was suddenly pushing him away after she had 'died' for him. No other reason made sense to him, at least not until it came out that she was on drugs. "I know you must be really confused Elizabeth and hurting, but you need to know I'm here for you. I will help you just like you helped me. Together we can beat this thing."

Elizabeth just shook her head. "Get out Lucky, you make me sick."

"What…"

"It's obvious that not only do you not remember loving me, you don't remember knowing me. Because if you did, if you knew me at all, you would know the truth without asking me. You would know the truth, even if someone had a videotape of me shooting up. You would know it from your heart." She finally closed the door in her heart that was labeled first love. "But you don't, because the Lucky I once knew and loved doesn't exist anymore, you're just a shell that wears his face sometimes."

Tears filled his eyes and he backed away from her words. "You don't mean that Elizabeth."

She turned her back on him and moved to the cot. "Goodbye Lucky."

"This isn't over Elizabeth." Lucky cried out. "It isn't over."

"It's been over since 1999, I just finally let it go," she whispered.

~*~*~*~

"Get up." The matron opened the cell door with a slam startling Elizabeth out of her fitful sleep.

"What?" Groggily she obeyed. Her eyes opened wide when she felt the cool snap of metal around her wrists. 

"You got another visitor," the matron explained while she hooked the cuffs around her ankles. "So move it Princess, you get the big room for this visit."

Elizabeth shuffled forward awkwardly. The length of chain between the cuffs on her ankles and her wrists was too short, and she was forced to hunch over and sort of shuffle. Apparently she didn't shuffle fast enough because the guard felt the need to prod her from behind with the nightstick, by jabbing her ribs. She had already learned not to complain, especially not with this particular guard. For some reason she seemed to almost hate her. She did her best to hurry up trying to avoid more jabs. But she was fighting tears when she reached a door, and waited for the guard to open it. The tears almost fell when she saw who was sitting there.

Sonny Corinthos looked up when she moved in the room, and he burned inside when he saw the way she was cuffed, like she was a dangerous criminal. She was pale enough, and slight enough that a strong breeze would knock her over, yet she was chained like she was an animal. He didn't say anything, just watched as the guard shoved Elizabeth into a chair with more force then was necessary, and then hooked her cuffs around a bolt in the table.

Elizabeth watched the guard leave before focusing on Sonny. "Thank you for coming."

"Of course I would come." He kept his voice low. "I would have come to the hearing but I knew my presence wouldn't have helped you. I tried to get Alexis to go, but she was out of town, and when they moved the hearing up, there wasn't time to get another lawyer there, to help you. It was only an arraignment, when Alexis starts on your case, I'm sure she will be able to get bail for you."

Elizabeth could have wept in relief. "You mean you believe I didn't do this?"

"I've been around people on drugs Elizabeth, your not on them, I know that." Sonny explained simply.

"Thank god, no one else seems to believe me. Even people I thought knew me." She shifted and her wrists moved against the too tight cuffs and she flinched.

Sonny focused on her wrists and could see a thin red line of blood and a welt forming there. "Why did she put them on so tight?"

"She doesn't like me," she shrugged. "It doesn't hurt too bad."

Sonny glanced at the closed door the matron had disappeared through. Elizabeth was going to need some protection while she was in here.

"The reason I wanted Zander to get you right away is because I want to know how Courtney is. And ask you why she hasn't come forward yet?"

Sonny focused on her again in surprise. "Courtney? What about her?"

Elizabeth blinked in surprise at the question. "She was there last night. In fact she was the one driving. Gia was in the passenger seat, and I was in the back seat."

He shook his head in denial. "Why haven't you mentioned this before?"

"I've been trying to remember what happened, and I finally am starting too, as near as I can tell Gia and I ran into Courtney when we were almost ready to leave. She joined us for a toast," Elizabeth's words came slower as she tried to remember. "I guess that was when someone put the drugs in the drink, because after that things get hazy again. But I remember Courtney saying she would drive, because she was more sober. So I agreed."

Sonny clenched his hands in anger. He did not like what he was hearing.

"I know she wasn't at the hospital with us. I don't know why not. Maybe she knows about the drugs too," Elizabeth focused on him again. "Can you ask her?"

"You're saying she gave you drugs?" Sonny asked coldly.

Elizabeth drew back from the cold tone. "I didn't say that, I don't know who gave me the drugs, but she was there."

"Why do you think that? Because of some memory you had while under the haze of alcohol and drugs?"

"Sonny she was there. I need her to tell the police what happened." Elizabeth tried to explain rationally, but his face kept growing colder and colder.

"You're trying to blame my sister, for some mess that you made?" He leaned over the table. "Maybe you were drugged. But my sister didn't drug you, and she sure as hell wouldn't let you take the blame if she was driving the car."

"I'm not lying."

"I can understand you wanting to find a way out of this mess, but I will not let you use my sister to do it. You better think of another story." Sonny warned her. "Because if you repeat this one…"

"Sonny listen to me. I'm telling you the truth. Courtney was there last night, she was driving when the car went off the road, not me. I'm sorry if this surprises or hurts you but you need to know the truth."

"The truth?" Sonny demanded. "Like the truths you used to tell Jason when you used him like a yo-yo?"

Stung Elizabeth's eyes filled. "Sonny you know me…"

"Wrong I knew a girl who was willing to place her life in danger in order to let other's know that her friendship with Jason wasn't a mistake." He studied her through cold eyes, "I don't you now. I look at you and all I see is a woman who will resort to lying about an innocent girl, accusing her of drugging people, all to get out of trouble of her own making."

"I've never lied to you," Elizabeth argued the tears slipping down her face. "I'm sorry if you don't want to hear it, but your sister is the reason I'm in here."

"Don't," he pointed a finger at her in warning. "Ever repeat that to anyone." He leaned closer to her and lowered his voice, his dark eyes flashed in anger. "I was willing to help you, to bail you out, to get Alexis to defend you, and instead you spit on my family. You lie about my sister. Do you really I will help you after that?"

"Ask her."

"I don't need to ask her," Sonny slammed his hand down on the table causing her to jolt. "I know her, I know what type of person she is."

"You know me," Elizabeth pressed. "God Sonny you've known me for years. Do you really think I'm lying to you?"

Sonny felt himself weakening and clenched his hands to retain his anger. "She's family Elizabeth, a concept you don't seem to be able to grasp. You don't threaten my family." He got to his feet. "I helped you once when I didn't want too, because of Jason. But that debt is paid, you will go no help from me. And if you go to Taggert with this accusation about my sister…" he trailed off and straightened his jacket. "You will be my enemy."

"Sonny please." Elizabeth tried to get to her feet but the chains on her wrist didn't let her.

"Goodbye Elizabeth." Sonny knocked on the door and waited for the guard.

"You know me, you may not want to admit that now, but you do. You know I didn't do this, you know I'm not lying about Courtney."

"Guard." Sonny yelled.

"Don't turn your back on me. Don't abandon me." Elizabeth cried. "Not when you know the truth.

The door opened and Sonny moved through it in relief. But her words followed him. He closed his eyes and allowed himself to sag in relief when the door closed behind him. She had to be lying, Courtney was an honest girl, in spite of her parents. She would never let Elizabeth take the blame for something she did. Would she?

~*~*~*~

Elizabeth was lying on her cot, her tears had had come and gone again and she curled on her side in a ball, when the noises of the jail started again. She was feeling very alone at the moment, alone and frightened. Who else was she going to lose out of her life before this nightmare was over?

"Elizabeth?"

She turned her head when someone said her name, and found herself looking into warm blue eyes.


	3. Man about town

Disclaimer: Standard I don't own the, I just play with them.

Feedback: PLEASE J 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

****

Web of Deceit

Part III

****

~Jail~

"How ya doing darlin?"

"Luke?" Elizabeth pushed her way to her feet and rubbed at her eyes trying to see if she was seeing things. "Are you really here?"

"In the flesh," Luke grinned and leaned on the bars. "Don't tell me you've been dreaming about me."

"No," she managed a small smile and moved closer to him. "I was just surprised to see you. You left town after," she trailed off, "after New Years. I didn't know you were back."

"I got in town this morning and you know what the first thing I saw was?" He asked. "You're beautiful face staring at me from the cover of the Port Charles Disappointment. I picked it up hoping that you had won the lottery, but you hadn't."

"No," she gripped a bar and began to flick at the chipped paint there, avoiding his eyes.

"So I'll ask again. How are you doing?" His eyes studied her shrewdly. She was too pale, and the jumpsuit was too big on her, she looked like a little girl playing dress up.

Elizabeth shrugged. "I wasn't hurt that bad."

"Elizabeth look at me please."

She sighed then finally raised her eyes to look at the man she loved more than her own father. She braced herself for the look of disappointment or anger that had been in everyone else's eyes when they looked at her, since this whole nightmare had begun.

"How are you really?"

She blinked at the concern in his voice. "I'm holding on."

"Barely," he sneered. "What the hell was Bubba thinking? Arresting you for drugs and attempted murder. I swear there is no way that idiot is Robert's brother. He just doesn't have enough brain cells. He puts two and two together and gets five," warming to his diatribe he smirked at her. "Anyone with a half a brain can see that you're being set-up. Jesus you'd no more try to kill…" he trailed off and gripped the bars in concern. "Hey now don't do that. Why are you crying?" He fidgeted nervously. "You're not supposed to do that."

But Elizabeth could no more stop the tears than she could stop the idiotic grin from spreading across her face. "You…you b-believe me," she brushed at the tears. "You even b-believe me, without asking first."

"Of course I believe you. I know you, wouldn't do this," he patted her hand. "Why are you so surprised?"

"Because no one else believes me." She flicked away the last of the tears. "Even Gram didn't believe me about not doing drugs, at least not right away. Not until I remembered more."

"I don't like the sound of that." Luke muttered. "You're too good of a person to have done this."

"That's not a popular opinion right now."

"Hell who wants to be popular? You're popular and suddenly you have to wear sunglasses everywhere, even indoors, and you have to travel with the hanger on rejects from a Rolling Stones concert." He gave an exaggerated shudder and was rewarded with a watery smile from her.

"I'm scared Luke. Someone's setting me up. And they're good, if I didn't know better I would say I was guilty."

"I'll find out who's doing this to you. No one can hide from a Spencer when he wants to find him, I'll get Cowboy to help me," he paused and looked around. "I know you two didn't get married, but I still thought he would be here for you." He focused on her again in time to see a mask descend. "Elizabeth where's Lucky?"

"Probably with Nikolas," she went back to flicking at the paint on the bars. "He came by earlier to see me."

__

Because no one else believes me.

Luke shut his eyes, hoping against hope that his son wasn't one of those people. "What did he do?"

"It doesn't matter." A part of her was afraid if she told Luke that Lucky didn't even believe her, that maybe he would stop, believing her too. She wasn't a Spencer after all, she had walked away from Lucky and his family on New Years.

Luke groaned and hit his head on the bars. "Don't tell me he believes this cock and bull story?"

"I don't know how much he believes, other than he thinks I'm on drugs. He believes that's why I wouldn't marry him, why I kept pushing him away. He seemed to need a reason for me to do that, and the fact that he doesn't love me, wasn't enough for him."

"I'm sorry. I need to talk some sense in him, he's been spending too much time with the dark prince."

"Don't Luke," she looked over at him then. "It's better this way. He should have known like you did, Nikolas should have known, Sonny…" she moved on. "He wants to believe in his family, and Nikolas thinks I did this. I guess that's how families work. They stick together no matter what. Someone pointed it out to me recently, that I don't have much experience with families and he was right."

Luke touched her hand. "You will always be my family."

Touched she felt her heart swell, then it fell. "You don't have to say that. I know you meant it while Lucky was gone, and then when you thought we were getting married, but now…"

"Elizabeth," he touched his heart. "You have your own place in this old heart of mine. It might have been made originally because of my son, but you filled it on your own. I will love you and help you forever, because to me you're my daughter."

She covered her mouth to stifle a sob. "Why is it that when you look at me I feel loved? And with my own father I never did?" She shook her head. "Don't answer that. Just know that I would have loved to have been your daughter."

Luke felt the sting of tears in his eyes. "Well enough of this, soon we'll need a mop, and that's bad for my image," he reached in his pocket and pulled out his shades, slipping them on. "Now I want you to tell me everything that you remember, everything you've said to anyone," he narrowed his eyes. "And don't forget to put in that part about Corinthos that you glossed over earlier."

"Thank you, I don't feel so alone anymore."

"Elizabeth I can promise you that you will not go to jail," he met her eyes, conveying a meaning with them. 

"You mean I can go on the run for the rest of my life?" she whispered. "You tried that, and it didn't work. What makes you think I could?"

"I promise you will get out of here." He looked around for a guard then lowered his voice. "So dish girl."

Elizabeth smiled, leaned against the bars and told him.

****

~Penthouse 4~

"Sonny is there something wrong? You're staring at me like I have something on my nose." Courtney rubbed self-consciously at her face. "Do I?"

"No, sorry," Sonny looked back at his plate. "I was just thinking." Elizabeth's words and desperation hadn't left him. In the hours since he had left the jail, they had rung in his ears, and nagged at him, condemning him. He remembered the bruises on her face, on her wrists, and the desperation she had, when she tried to convince him. But more than that he could remember the look on her face when he had turned on her. He jolted and almost jackknifed from the table when Courtney touched his hand.

"Calm down." Courtney eyed him warily. "What is going on with you?"

Sonny pushed away from his chair and drained the last of the wine from his glass. "I saw an old friend today, I guess I'm still reliving that."

"Oh was it bad or something?"

"Something," he moved over to the couch and slumped on it.

__

I'm not lying. I've never lied to you.

He rubbed wearily at his eyes and turned to look at his newfound sister when she joined him on the couch. "So what did you do last night?"

"Not to much. I went by that blues club for a while, then ended up driving. I love to drive it helps me think." She leaned back against the cushion and closed her eyes.

__

Courtney was there last night, she was driving when the car went off the road, not me.

Again he tried to vanish the words. "When you were driving did you stop anywhere? Maybe to get a drink, meet some people?"

"What's with all the questions?" Courtney opened one eye to peer at him. "Is this your way of wanting to know if I saw AJ again? After the way you went off on me, I think I know you don't like him."

Sonny grimaced at the mention of AJ's name. "No it's not about AJ, although I hope you don't see him again."

"Sonny I told you the only way I will see you is if you don't try to control my life, or the people in it." She got to her feet. "If you can't do that, I'm gone now."

"Alright, calm down." Sonny tried a grin. "I was just hoping you might have met some friends…

__

You know me, you may not want to admit that now, but you do. You know I didn't do this, you know I'm not lying about Courtney.

"Like Elizabeth, the girl I introduced you too at Kelly's," he finished.

"No. I didn't see anyone, and I haven't seen that girl since that day." She patted his arm before moving to her coat. "I make friends in my own time, and of my own choosing Sonny."

"Did you hurt yourself?" Sonny asked when he saw how awkwardly she slipped on her coat.

"No," her hand emerged and in it was a series of threads. "I was caught on this," she frowned at him. "You know maybe you should makeup with Alexis. She seems to be your only friend and I think you need one."

Sonny frowned and opened the door. "Goodnight Courtney, Johnny will drive you home."

"Thanks but I have my car." Courtney walked past Johnny without a word and hit the button on the elevator.

Sonny frowned after her long after she left.

__

Don't turn your back on me. Don't abandon me. Not when you know the truth.

"Boss?" Johnny asked after a minute.

"You know Elizabeth is in jail right?" Sonny kept his eyes on the wall.

"Yeah."

"Make sure nothing happens to her while she's there. Either from another prisoner," he looked at the taller man. "Or from a guard. No more bruises on her."

"I'll take care of it."

Sonny nodded and moved back in the room and headed for his wet bar. He poured a double shot of scotch and downed it in one gulp.

__

No. I didn't see anyone, and I haven't seen that girl since that day.

Sonny poured some more scotch.

__

I've never lied to you. I'm sorry if you don't want to hear it, but your sister is the reason I'm in here.

"Christ what a mess."

****

~Car~

Courtney drummed her fingers on the steering wheel, while she waited for the phone to be picked up. She leaned over to turn on the stereo and grunted in pain when the move hurt her already sore shoulder. "Hey it's me," she paused. "I need to see you." She grinned and listened. "I think that can be arranged. You know where." She closed the phone and put the car in gear.

****

~Penthouse 4~

"What?" Sonny demanded with a snap when he yanked the door open.

Luke brushed past him with barely a glance and moved straight for the liquor. "What happened to the muscle? Did he need to get some more steroids?"

Sonny rolled his head and closed the door. "Want a drink?"

"Ah," Luke smacked his lips and took another sip before turning to look at his former partner and friend. "I want to know what the hell you were doing going off on Elizabeth like that."

Sonny moved to the table and picked up his own drink. "That's between me and her."

"Bull. You yanked the rug out from under her, when she was barely hanging on to begin with," Luke looked around the newly decorated penthouse. "So where is long-lost Heidi?"

"You stay away from my sister."

Luke raised a brow. "She must be good. She got you to turn on someone you've known for years, and what? She's only been here a month?"

"Watch it Luke," Sonny warned him.

"I did a little checking on Heidi. She doesn't have much a pedigree. Her dad is Mike, and don't get me wrong, he grows on you, kind of like athlete's foot. But he isn't exactly of sterling character," he poured himself some more scotch. "But next to this viper Janine, he's the Pope. You really think this child of theirs wouldn't lie to save her skin?"

"Luke I'll tolerate your insults, about Mike, about me, but not my sister. I've taken whatever you had to say about me, and too me, ever since you began to blame me for Lucky's death. A death that wasn't real, and was caused by your past and not mine." He took a step closer. "But I won't let you insult my family. That's what she is, she is my family. You don't know her you can't judge her. Hell she told the truth to Edward Quartermaine and almost got her mother sent to jail because of it. She wouldn't let Elizabeth swing for this."

Luke nodded and tossed back the rest of the drink before slamming the glass on the table. "If that's the way you want to play it, fine."

"She's family Luke, just like Bobbie's yours."

"Here's a newsflash for you Corinthos. Elizabeth is my family, and your family is fucking with her," he headed for the door and opened it before turning to face him. "I won't allow that. You're on notice, either get Heidi to tell the truth or I will."

Sonny waited until Luke had slammed the door before throwing the glass at it.

****

~Jail~

"God Princess your popular." The matron sneered. "But popular or not, this is your last visitor." She turned around. "Move it, you only got 5 minutes."

Elizabeth moved to the bars wondering who it would be now. She wasn't sure she was ready for any more abuse. She rubbed a hand over her eyes then opened them when someone cleared their throat. Her eyes widened in disbelief when she recognized the person on the other side of the bars. "Sarah?"

"Oh Lizzie," Sarah rushed the bars, blowing past the Matron. "This is so awful. Are you okay?"

****

~Penthouse 4~

Sonny was tired of being inside his head. Two loyalties were warring there. The loyalty to his sister. The only family, besides Michael that he had, and the loyalty he had felt for years for Elizabeth. One of them was lying. And every time he thought he knew which one was, he changed his mind. 

Luke was right he had only known Courtney for a month, and had known for Elizabeth for years. But Courtney was family, she had been abandoned just like he had, by Mike. That made them closer, it gave them a shared history. He had to believe in his sister, because he didn't have that many people left in his life.

He opened his eyes and focused on his door.

__

You always have me.

Alexis' words came back to him, and he wondered if she still meant them. He had been brutal with her after he found out she had told Courtney about his past with Deke. If he were honest with himself, he would have to admit that he had been treating her pretty badly even before that.

He hesitated, then opened the door, before he gave himself a chance to rethink he was across the hall and raising his hand to knock on her door when he realized it was ajar.

"Please Alexis, just meet with her. Listen to what she has to say."

Sonny hesitated then began to listen.

"I don't know Audrey. Nikolas is my nephew, and Gia is his fiancée." Alexis replied trying to deny the urge she had been feeling to speak to Elizabeth ever since she had heard about what happened to her.

"Please. She's in jail. They won't even let her come home until the trial," Audrey pleaded. "She doesn't deserve to be in jail. And those charges? Murder? She would never do that. You know my granddaughter. You've worked in the same building with her. You know she's not capable of murder."

Alexis debated with herself for another minute, then made the only decision she could. "I'll talk to her."

"No you won't." Sonny pushed the door open and announced his presence.

"Sonny?" Alexis whirled around, surprised to see him there, but even more surprised by the expression on his face.

"I'm sorry Mrs. Hardy but Alexis cannot meet with Elizabeth."

"Why not?" Audrey demanded. She had spent a long and frustrating day trying to find the best attorney in town to help Elizabeth, and everyone from Lee Baldwin, the Quartermaine's, to the local ABA chapter all said Alexis Davis was it, and now that she had finally gotten to speak with her, she wasn't about to let the local mobster stop her. 

"Sonny you don't speak for me. I speak for you remember?" Alexis explained.

"Not this time. It would be a conflict of interest." Sonny countered. "Elizabeth is saying that Courtney, my sister was driving, not her. You can't help her with that."

"What?" Audrey demanded, clutching his arm. "She remembers? She remembers what happened?"

He could see the naked hope in the older woman's eyes and hardened his heart to it. "I didn't say that. She told me that Courtney was driving, but my sister says she wasn't. I believe my sister."

"Alexis please, come talk to her now." Audrey clutched her purse, dismissing the rest of Sonny's words. The only important thing he had said was that Elizabeth had remembered."

"Alexis," Sonny said.

"Can you give us a minute Audrey?" Alexis asked.

"I'll get the elevator." Audrey walked past Sonny without so much as a second glance.

"You can't help Elizabeth. Not if she persists in trying to blame my sister for this mess," Sonny moved closer. "Because if she's right and Courtney was driving, that means she was the one who tried to kill Gia, she's the one framing Elizabeth. Now tell me why she would do that?"

"I don't know." Alexis admitted.

"Right there's no reason for it. I introduced her to Elizabeth myself a few days ago. So where is the motive for wanting to do this?"

"Has Elizabeth ever lied to you before?"

"No," Sonny stalked past her.

"But you're sure she is now?"

"Damn it Alexis. She has to be. I've looked at this from every angle," he whirled around to face her. Do you think I want to believe this? Don't you know how much I want to help Elizabeth? But I can't. Not as long as she wants to blame my sister. Nikolas, your own nephew, doesn't even believe her, Lucky doesn't believe her. How, no why should I?"

Alexis pulled off her glasses and rubbed the bridge of her nose in frustration. "I don't know Sonny. But I know Elizabeth and she wouldn't do this. That means someone did it to her."

"Exactly," Sonny eyed her coldly. "And she says it was Courtney," he moved closer. "You wanted me to forgive you, for telling Courtney my business, and I don't know if I can. But I do know, that if you take Elizabeth's side against my sister. That's something I won't ever forgive you for."

Alexis closed her eyes. "Are you giving me an ultimatum?"

"If you have to call it that. Me and my family, or Elizabeth." Sonny stepped back. "It's up to you."

****

~Luke's~

"Go away." Luke yelled at the door, and for good measure threw a book at it, but the door opened anyway.

"Dad?"

"Cowboy," Luke brightened at the sight of his son. "Grab a seat." He gestured to the chairs, one that was overflowing with papers, the other had a black bag on it.

Lucky moved the bag, dropping it with a splat, when he was caught off guard by the unexpected weight. "Jesus what's in here?"

"You might call it a nest egg," Luke blew out some smoke. "So what brings you by?"

"I heard you were back in town, and I wanted to tell you something," Lucky unzipped his jacket and leaned forward.

"If it's about the fair Miss Webber I already know," he leaned back in his chair and blew smoke in his son's direction. "I also know that she thinks you don't believe her."

Lucky shrugged. "She's been acting so weird lately. I didn't know she was on drugs until the accident. I went there trying to help her, to tell her that I would be there for her, like she was always there for me. But she got mad and threw me out."

Luke shook his head in disgust. "I don't blame her. I would have tossed you out on your ass too."

"Dad."

"Lucky you know her. How can you ever believe that she would take drugs, or try to kill someone?"

"The evidence…"

"To hell with the evidence," Luke cut him off. "You know evidence can lie."

Lucky shrugged and moved to the small refrigerator and pulled out a bottle of water. "I don't think it is lying, neither does Nikolas."

"Oh the dark prince has spoken." Luke moved over and got a drink of his own, using the opportunity to study his son, and he didn't like what he saw.

"Dad you must not know what the police have against her. Taggert showed us, it's pretty bad, and it's pretty convincing. Gia doesn't remember a thing. So it comes down to Elizabeth's word or the evidence." Lucky explained.

"Jesus," he looked down at Lucky. "If this is what Elizabeth saw in you when she walked down the aisle, I don't blame her for running. Hell I would have kept running."

"Dad." Lucky cried and stormed to the chair.

"I thought I taught you better then this. I thought I taught you to look past the obvious to the truth. I thought I taught you to believe in your heart, even when your head tells you it is impossible."

"The evidence…" Lucky tried lamely.

"Oh and the evidence has never lied. Like the evidence that said your mother killed Damian Smith, the evidence that said I killed Stefan Cassadine," he took a draw on his cigar and blew it in Lucky's direction. "Or how about the evidence that said you died in March of 1999. You want to tell me again how the evidence can't be wrong?"

"You don't understand," Lucky cried zipping his coat. "Elizabeth is in trouble, she needs me to save her. Don't you see that's how we started the first time. This will help us start again."

Luke stumbled to his chair in horror. "You think she did this deliberately, just so you would have to help her rebuild her life again, and would fall in love with her again?"

Lucky flushed guiltily. "I got to go," he said abruptly and went out the door.

He reached out with an unsteady hand and picked up a photograph that had been on his desk for over 8 years now. He ran a finger over the image of his 12 year-old-son, with the wry half grin, that he always had on his face. "Cowboy what happened to you?"

He traced the boy's face, trying to brush the bangs out of the face, in the photo. "You aren't like this, you could never be like this, not to Elizabeth. It's like your not even Lucky anymore, you're just some stranger, that looks a little like him."

With a sigh he set the photo down and opened the laptop that he had been working on before Lucky had come. He blinked hard at the tears that the realization that he had never truly gotten his son back had caused. "So let's find someone who will help Elizabeth."

He rubbed his hands together in anticipation, hunting was always his favorite sport. "So where are you hiding these days Junior?" He hit a few buttons. "Maybe I should start with barber's that specialize in cartoon characters."

****

~Bayside Hotel~

The room was dark when she got there, but she pushed the door open and walked inside it confident that he would be there. She slipped her coat off and draped it over the chair. She could feel his eyes on her even if she hadn't spotted him yet. Her mouth turned in a feral smile as she began to unbutton her blouse, one button at a time.

Soon the blouse and pants were on the floor, she stepped out of her panties, before moving towards the dim outline on the bed. "Enjoy the show?" She asked slipping her fingers underneath her bra snap unhooking it, but not removing it yet.

"Always." He reached up and covered her now exposed breast with his hand. "What took you so long?"

Courtney smiled in the dark. "I was being the dutiful sister. Sonny wanted dinner."

"I told you never to talk about him when were like this." He ordered nipping hard at her neck before moving up to see her eyes.

"AJ who wants to talk at all?" Courtney asked before claiming his mouth and pushing him back on the bed.


	4. Ultimatums

Disclaimer: The characters, and rights to them are owned by TIIC, they just chose not to use them in an interesting manner.

Feedback: Is how I get paid so please let me hear from you, good or bad.

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Web of Deceit

Part IV

****

~Jail~

Elizabeth rested her head on the cool wall and tried to think about anything other than what she had been thinking about. But it was no use. She had been in this cell for 8 days, 8 long days, and every time she looked around it, it seemed like it was getting smaller. She looked down at her pale wrist, it looked like it had shrunk too. It was like she was trapped in a vacuum and everything was shrinking. Soon there wouldn't be anything left but these four walls.

She sighed and closed her eyes. It was thoughts like this that weren't helping her. Her grandmother, Luke, Sarah, especially Sarah were always telling her to be positive. That she would get out of this mess any day now. But any day now didn't seem to be coming, and she was beginning to think it never would.

Her trial date was looming large, and the latest in the parade of lawyers her grandmother had brought in, had said it didn't look good for her. Hell she knew that over a week ago. Each lawyer that her gram had brought in had told her to plead guilty to a lesser offense. Each one had said that was the only way she wouldn't go to jail for 20 years. And each one of them after giving that advice was shown the door rather painfully by Luke. 

Her nose wrinkled in a small weak smile. Luke was even willing to swallow his pride and talk to Scott Baldwin about taking her case. But Scott was unavailable, camping somewhere in Alaska with Serena. 

Her trial started in 3 days and things didn't look good. The evidence against her was damning. Gia didn't remember. Her closest friends believed she was guilty. Courtney still denied being there. She had thought that with time Sonny might realize that she wasn't lying, but apparently he hadn't. Or if he had, he had decided to side with his sister anyway. It didn't matter anyway, there would no Calvary to come to her rescue this time.

If there were a bright spot about going to prison, it would be that she wouldn't have to see Lucky anymore. He had been coming by every day, to offer his help, and look at her through those sad empty eyes of his. He wanted her to admit that she needed his help. According to him, once she did that, this whole mess would evaporate. She was beginning to seriously doubt his sanity.

Elizabeth pushed her way to her feet and fell heavily against the wall when the room spun and began to go dark. She remained where she was and waited for the feeling to pass, before moving back to her cot. It was time for 2:00 – 3:00 nap. This was how she lived, she slept, picked at her food, tried to stay positive when her gram or the others were around, then went back to sleep.

"Elizabeth."

She closed her eyes and tried to block out the sound of her name. She had forgotten about the whispers. Whispers that came from the next cell. Those whispers were almost worse than the food in this place.

"I wonder if my darling Nikolas will come by again. I hope so. I do love to hear him threaten you." Helena Cassadine moved closer to the wall that separated her cell from Elizabeth's and prepared to enjoy the afternoon edition of her favorite pastime, which was tormenting Elizabeth Webber. "And to think I once thought you worthy of at least sharing his bed."

Elizabeth pulled the pillow over her head and tried to block out the voice.

****

~Luke's~

"Luke this is killing her, and it is killing me. She dies a little more every day and it's only been 8 days," Audrey cried out. "I don't know how much more she can take."

"She's strong Audrey." Luke pointed out.

"Yes but she shouldn't have to be this strong." Temper spent Audrey sank in the chair. "It pains me, that I didn't believe her at first. And I know that hurt Elizabeth as well," familial pride gone she focused on the one other person who was devoted to saving her granddaughter.

"Her parents have refused to come home. They won't even call her. Steven is too busy in his practice to come." Audrey didn't hate. It didn't come naturally to her. But she was rapidly coming to loathe her family. "Sarah tries, but her parents should be here. Her family should be here, and they're not."

Luke had a few choice words he could use on to describe the Webber clan, but wisely didn't. "She has you."

"Yes but I doubted her. I have no idea how much that hurt her. I thought she took drugs, and didn't believe her when she denied it. I didn't believe her, until they accused her of attempted murder and realized she was telling the truth. That's something I'm going to have to live with."

"The important thing is when it came to crunch time Audrey, you're here for her." He shuffled some papers on his desk. "So what does the latest 'Tricky Dick' have to say?"

She looked at him blankly.

"The latest in the revolving door of lawyers, what's his advice."

"The same as the others. To plead it out. Make the offer of 7 – 15 and with good behavior maybe she could be out in 5 years." Audrey had become very familiar with legal jargon in the past week. She had also developed a healthy dislike of the entire law field.

"Idiots every last blood-sucking one of them." Luke grumbled and got up to refill his coffee cup.

She agreed but didn't voice her opinion. "I thought Alexis Davis might change her mind. But as of last night, she still refuses to even meet with Elizabeth and hear her story."

"Thanks to Corinthos no doubt," he murmured darkly.

Audrey hesitated, then the image of Elizabeth behind bars came to her and she swallowed her pride. "Elizabeth always used to defend Sonny to me, he even helped her before. Yet he turned on her just like that."

"Yeah," Luke drawled. "Corinthos is like that. He cuts people out of his life for what he sees as a betrayal to him, yet he does the same thing to other people all the time."

"Do you…" she trailed off.

Luke moved back to his chair and waited for her to continue. He had a feeling she was working up to something that was hard for her to admit.

"As much as she spoke of Sonny, she spoke so much more of Jason Morgan," she darted a look at him. "What do you think of him?"

"Junior?" He tugged on his ear and took a long sip of coffee, the stuff tasted horrible without any brandy in it. "Are you asking me if I think he could help Elizabeth? Then the answer is yes. If you want to know if he will side with her over Corinthos," he trailed off and thought about it. He remembered all the times he had seen them together, he remembered Lucky's jealousy, and Elizabeth's sadness when he had left town. 

"I think he will. Jason's not like other people. Once he gives you his loyalty you could screw him six wa…"

Audrey raised an eyebrow.

"Er anyway," Luke began again. "He'd still be loyal to you. But if you mess over someone he cares about, he won't be. That's what broke him and Robin up in the end. It wasn't my psycho niece like everyone thought. Robin broke his trust, which he could forgive, but in doing so she hurt Michael, and that was something he couldn't. Another thing about him is that he sees through people right to the truth that they want so desperately to hide and he calls them on it."

"So he would know she was telling the truth."

"Oh I have no doubt he'll believe her. He'll believe her without even asking her," his gut twisted because his son didn't have that same sort of faith in her. "And he'll help her, no matter what."

She nodded she had thought so herself, but it was nice to have her suspicions confirmed. "Can you contact him then?"

Luke smirked and flipped open the cover of a laptop that was cycling through information. "I've been looking for junior since I got to town."

Audrey looked worried at that pronouncement. "The hearing starts in three days. What if you can't find him in time?"

Luke grimaced he wasn't about to let Audrey know about plan B that was safely locked away in his safe. The plan B that involved nitroglycerin. There were things even a grandmother shouldn't know. "I'll talk to Natasha," at her blank look he clarified. "Alexis, about taking Elizabeth's case."

He finally glowered down at the ringing phone he had been ignoring. "What?" He snarled into it."

Then his expression changed, his face seemed to light up and a smile crossed his lips, causing Audrey to blink in surprise. 

"Sunshine. I've been waiting to hear from you." He paused and listened. "Listen sweetie I need your help to find that brother of yours."

****

~Penthouse 4~

Carly stormed off the elevator the same time Alexis opened her door and walked out into the hall. They eyed each other warily but before either had a chance to speak they were both distracted by the sound of shouts coming from Sonny's penthouse.

Moving in tandem they turned the corner towards the door, in time to see it fly open and Zander come flying out of it, crashing into the wall.

"Zander," Carly hurried to his side in concern.

Alexis looked past him to an irate Sonny who was standing in the door.

"Get out. And don't ever come back." Sonny ordered him.

Zander straightened and focused on his former friend. "Fine I'll leave. I don't want to work for you anymore. I don't even want to know you. I have no idea what happened to you man, but at times you act like Sorel."

Sonny took a step forward and Carly turned on him. "Back off," she warned him. "Are you attacking him because he had the balls to tell me the truth about you spying on me?"

"This is between him and me Carly."

"Bull Sonny. You hired him to be my friend, to keep an eye on me, and what I do, so he could report my every move back to you," she stepped closer. "I bet you never counted on him liking me for me."

"You're fired Zander." Sonny said then turned to go back inside.

Alexis blocked his way. "Another ultimatum? Is that what you gave him?"

"Move Alexis."

"Who are you Sonny? I look for my best friend in you, and I can't see him anymore." Alexis whispered.

Sonny wait until he was past her and in the room before he flinched in reaction to her words.

"Will you go with Alexis Zander, I need to talk to Sonny," Carly asked.

"I don't think…"

"Please." Carly patted his arm. "I'll be fine."

Zander nodded reluctantly and trailed Alexis to her penthouse.

Carly moved inside the penthouse and looked around at the new design of it. It wasn't as dark as it had been. But it still wasn't alive. "I look around this place and even though it looks different, even though it's painted in lighter colors, it still the same as it was when I moved in here. Cold, angry and empty." 

She looked at him sadly. "I fought to change this place, I fought to change you. I tried to fill both it and you up with warmth. But I wasn't strong enough, or good enough, or worthy enough, for whatever reason I failed. Or maybe I failed because you wanted me too. You never wanted me to get to far in, because I might abandon you, so instead you abandoned me first."

"That wasn't how it happened." Sonny interrupted, pouring himself a drink.

"Isn't it? Didn't all this start when you stopped talking to me? When you started hiding things from me?" She shrugged. "I guess it doesn't matter now. Since then I've done everything you wanted me to do. You wanted the divorce I gave you the divorce. You wanted to be Michael's father, I let you adopt him. You wanted me to be a better person. Someone you could trust, so I tried to become one," she took the glass from his hand. "You know what Sonny, I started to change just so I could please you. Just so you would see I was worthy of your love. But no more."

Sonny moved past her to sit on the couch, trying to get a break, but she trailed him. 

"I realized the longer we were apart, the more I started doing things for me. Changing for me. This may have all started in some attempt to prove myself to you, but now it's only for me."

"Fine I'm happy for you." Sonny cried shortly. "I'm glad you've finally moved on. Are we done?"

"You're falling Sonny. You're falling so fast and so far I don't know if you can stop yourself. Soon there won't be anybody left here to catch you. I'm gone, Courtney lasted what? A week. Mike has been banished, Jason's gone, it even looks like you've managed to lose Alexis," she shook her head at that. "Zander was loyal to you, and now you've abused his trust and tossed him out too. You're so afraid of being left by people, that you try to kick them out of your life before they can leave you. Yet at the same time you hang on to people so tight, you try to control them, even after they leave, that we have to break free of you just to breathe."

Sonny closed his eyes and shook his head, yet he made no effort to defend himself.

"I fought like hell to get Michael away from the Quartermaine's and their twisted sense of love that masked their need to control people, and stifle their dreams. I trusted the most important thing in the world to you," she rubbed her forehead wearily. "But I won't let you near Michael when you're like this. He deserves better than that, better than you right now. So I'm putting you on notice. If you want to see your son, get control of your life. Because until you do, you won't get near him."

Courtney barely had time to move down the hall to the emergency exit before Carly stormed out of the penthouse heading for Alexis' penthouse. She waited until Carly opened the door and barged in there before moving back down the hall to Sonny's door that was still ajar. She peered in and saw him staring at the wet bar. Her mouth curved into a slight grin when he took his arm and brushed it against the bottles shattering every one of them, by shoving them on the floor. She moved to the elevator before he could see her, the sound of him breaking more things followed her every step.

****

~Penthouse 2~

"All I'm saying is you need to watch him. You're around him more than anybody else, more than most attorneys are." Carly couldn't help but make the jab.

Alexis rolled her eyes. "Carly how many times do I have to tell you that Sonny and I aren't involved in that way? Right now we're barely speaking. Right now I don't even like him very much."

"Whatever," Carly huffed. "All I'm saying is Sonny gets in these moods. Normally when he does Jason is the only who can bring him out of it. He gets destructive. You just need to watch him," that was the best she could say to her one time rival, so she turned to Zander. "Are you ready to leave?"

Zander got up from the couch in surprise. "I thought you were mad at me."

"Oh I am," Carly warned him before giving Alexis a look. She took the hint and moved over to the couch.

"Look Zander I've really only had three friends in my life. The real Carly Roberts who died when we were teens. Jason started out as a no-name sex partner, who I later blackmailed, before we finally became friends. And then there is a guy who was paid to be my friend, and in the end decided it was better to be my friend than keep his job." She smiled slightly. "So we're friends, and I don't have enough of them to throw one away. But I'm still mad," she said when he smiled. "So you're on swatch detail."

Zander sagged in relief, he was afraid he had lost her, and as unnerving as it was too realize he never wanted to lose her. "Swatch's?"

"And paint," she tucked her arm through his, "also music, lot's and lots of music," he opened the door and she jerked to a stop. "Luke," she said his name icily.

"Caroline," Luke drawled with a sly smile. "In trouble again are you?"

Carly rolled her eyes and dragged Zander past him.

"Good choice going younger this time Caroline," Luke called after her, earning a glare in response. "The geriatric club hasn't been good to you. Maybe you can train this one," he peered at Zander. "Can you fetch yet boy?"

They both glared at him and Luke smiled in return and moved into Alexis' penthouse. "Was it something I said?"

"Isn't it always?" Alexis was well used to Luke's actions. "What do you want?"

"Natasha you wound me," Luke moved to the other couch. "Is that anyway to talk to your former partner in crime?"

"The emphasis is on the word former Luke. And why is it you always forget that we nearly murdered the wrong person when we did work together?"

"Details," Luke waved his hand dismissively before reaching for a cigar.

Alexis plucked it from his hand. "What do you want?"

Luke pouted for a minute then got serious. "Why are you neglecting Elizabeth?"

~*~*~*~

"So you've reverted to following orders again? Kind of like when Helena forced you to get my ex-doc-bro-in-law out of jail for kidnapping Michael." He shot her a look. "And look how well that turned out."

Alexis felt the darts that his words cost her, but didn't show it. "This is different."

"Why because the threat came in the form of an ultimatum delivered by dimples?" Luke just shook his head. "I thought you were stronger than that Natasha."

"Nikolas also…"

"The dark prince? Whether you want to admit it or not, the boy is acting more and more like his father every day. With the stiff gone, no one will rein him in. Don't encourage him."

"Back off Luke," Alexis moved to the door and opened it. "I won't listen to you talk about Nikolas this way. Goodbye."

"Helena is in the cell next to hers. She talks to her all the time, she messes with her head." Luke kept his eyes on his clenched fists. "She blames Elizabeth for breaking her hold on Lucky. She blames her for helping to get her caught, hell she blames her for being alive, and all the time she is there whispering in Elizabeth's ear, and she can't get away from the old bag."

Alexis closed the door and moved back towards the couch. She was aware of the kind of mind games Helena could play on someone. She looked up at the nearly empty mantle above her fireplace. She'd had her own little breakdown not to long ago in direct reaction to coming out of one of Helena's mind games.

"She's wasting away before my eyes Alexis, she dies a little more every day, and she's barely even been there a week," he focused on her and the pain in his eyes was evident. "Have you ever seen a butterfly? They are so beautiful and light, and the way they move, they captivate you. Lucky caught one once, it was so beautiful he wanted it with him always. So he put it in a jar, on the windowsill where it would have plenty of light, and waited for it to dance. But it wouldn't, it died that night. Some things are just meant to move freely, with no restraints. She was trapped when she shouldn't have been, and she died when she couldn't get free. There are some things in life that need to be free to live."

He got to his feet and moved towards the door. "There are some people who shouldn't be caged either. She won't survive jail and she shouldn't have too. All I'm asking you to do is to talk to her. Look at the evidence. And after you do that, you can turn that little girl down, then fine. But don't hold back because of Corinthos," he hissed out the name. "Because he's not worth it. And unless I've been wrong about you for all these years, you already know that." 

****

~Jail~

"Move it Princess you got another visitor."

Elizabeth hid the flinch when she heard the matron's voice. She had been hoping she had seen the last of this particular guard. She hadn't been on the cellblock since her first day here, and she had been relieved. But it looked like her luck had run out. She moved quickly holding out her arms, hoping that she wouldn't be rough.

But the guard slammed the cuffs around her wrists, and tightened them hard against her wrists anyway, but Elizabeth didn't wince. She wouldn't give her the satisfaction. She bent forward slightly as the cuffs went around her ankles. Her mind went back to the last time she had been cuffed like this. 

Most of her visitors came directly to her cell, the only exception had been Sonny. And that must have been because of who he was. She swallowed hard, and didn't even feel the pokes in the back as the guard helped move her along. Maybe he had come back. Maybe he had decided to help her after all. Or maybe he was angry, because she was still trying to convince people that Courtney had been driving not her.

She worried her lip as they neared the door. She knew she was in trouble, when even Taggert didn't believe her, but she had still kept trying. Maybe he was mad about that. A part of her mind didn't believe that Sonny would ever hurt her. Yet, that same part also believed that she would soon wakeup in her own bed, and find that this was all a hideous nightmare.

Which one would it be? She closed her eyes as the door opened, then opened them slowly when the matron jabbed her from behind. "Alexis?"

Alexis looked over and at the girl and tried to remain objective when she saw her, but it was hard when she looked into that too pale face. "Elizabeth, I wanted to talk to you."

Elizabeth moved awkwardly to the table and waited for the guard to cuff her to the table and leave before speaking. "I didn't think you would come, not after what Sonny said."

"Sonny doesn't speak for me," she informed her. "At least not anymore. I don't know if I will take your case Elizabeth. But I would like to hear your story, then if you okay it, I would like to look at the evidence against you, after that I'll let you know if I want to take your case. Fair enough?"

"Yes." Elizabeth swallowed hard, and tried to battle down her hopes. She didn't want to get to hopeful, not yet. "Where do you want me to start?"

"Where else? The beginning."

****

~Bayside Hotel~

Courtney had barely opened the door, when her arm was grabbed and she was pulled inside the room. The door slammed shut, and found her back pressed hard against it, as she was faced with a furious male. "AJ what's your problem?"

"What's my problem?" He demanded, holding up a paper. "This is my problem."

She scanned the headline but she already knew what the article said. "What about it?"

"This says that Elizabeth Webber is telling her attorneys that she wasn't driving the car the night it went off the road. She says you were. What the hell do you know about this Courtney?"

Courtney brushed past him and slipped off her coat. "What do you think I know?"

"Damn'it I don't want to play 20 questions with you. I've seen you naked, I've seen the bruise on your shoulder. The bruise that could have been made by a seatbelt." He followed her to the bed.

"Are you asking me if I was driving? Be very sure you want to know AJ. Because since we started this, you've only wanted to know certain things."

AJ hesitated and his eye fell on the picture of Elizabeth on the paper. "Tell me if you were driving the car."

She sprawled back on the bed. "Of course I was driving. Don't you know Elizabeth Webber never lies?"

****

~PC Grille~

"Thanks for meeting me."

"Anything for my favorite ex-wife," Jax bent down and kissed her cheek before taking the bar stool next to hers. "So what's the crisis?"

Alexis kept her eye on her martini. "Elizabeth Webber."

"I heard about that. It's a shame, she was always so nice. Chloe used to say she was a godsend. I find it hard to believe she was on drugs, or would try to kill someone." He nodded at the bartender in thanks when he set his usual in front of him.

"That's just it, I don't think she did." Alexis played with the olive in her glass. "I think she's innocent."

"So you taking her case then?"

"Don't you want to know who the guilty party would be, if she was innocent?"

Jax leaned back and studied his friend. He probably knew her better than a most people. Right now she was definitely on her second martini, and she only drank martinis when she was trying to make a tough decision. A decision that was a win/lose type of decision. "I'll bite. Who did it?"

"Courtney Matthews, otherwise known as Sonny's kid sister." She downed the rest of her drink and puckered her lips in reaction.

Jax let out a whistle. "The one who caused the scene at New Years?"

"Yep," she waved at the bartender for another drink. "The very one. And you know what. I think she did it. Sonny doesn't want to hear that. He even said I had to chose between helping Elizabeth, and him and his sister."

It was hard, very hard, but he bit back the comment he wanted to make about Sonny. No sense in getting her back up, when she was finally beginning to see the truth about the bastard. "So what are you going to do?"

Alexis huffed out a breath and studied her full drink. "I don't know. If I don't help her she could go to jail. With what her lawyers have done so far, there's a chance that even I couldn't fix it."

"You not fix a case?" Jax teased. "Impossible."

"You're right," she agreed. Confidence was something she never lacked, at least when it came to her work. "But if I do take it, Sonny will see it as a betrayal. He doesn't forgive betrayals."

"Ass…" the rest of his comment was muffled by his drink, but Alexis still eyed him coolly. "So are you going to represent Elizabeth or not?"

"Represent Elizabeth are you crazy?"

Alexis spun around and her head kept spinning. "Nikolas."

"Tell me I didn't hear him right. Tell me you aren't considering representing Elizabeth." Nikolas demanded.

"Well…"

"She tried to kill Gia, my fiancée, she partially blinded her, and scarred her so bad, that she doesn't want to leave Wyndamere. And you want to defend her?"

"I don't think she did it," Alexis told him quietly.

"I don't believe you. I know you will represent anybody, but I thought you would have some loyalty to me, to your family, and even you wouldn't stoop this low."

"She's entitled to the best representation she can get." The words seemed to just fly out of her mouth.

"And we all know you're the best don't we?" Nikolas shook his head in disgust. "Don't do this Alexis. I'm asking you, as your nephew not to do this."

Alexis got unsteadily to her feet and focused on him, then her gaze shifted past him when a movement at the door caught her attention, and she saw Sonny standing there listening to them. "I know you don't want to hear this," her words were meant for both of them. "But Elizabeth didn't do this. She shouldn't go to prison for it, and if I can help her stay out of jail, I'm going to do that."

Sonny turned on his heel and walked out of the bar.

Alexis closed her eyes feeling the pain of his action down deep in her heart.

"Fine you won't do it out of love for me Aunt, then maybe you will do it when I tell you too," Nikolas spoke coldly and Alexis' eyes flew open at the tone. "I'm ordering you, as the Cassadine Prince, not to take this case. If you do, you will be banished from the family, forever."

Alexis' mouth dropped open in shock as she looked in her nephew's face, and saw her half brother's eyes looking back at her.


	5. Revelations

Disclaimer: Standard I don't own the rights, I'm a broke person.

Feedback: Please!

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****

Web of Deceit

Part V

****

~Bayside Hotel~

"You were driving?" AJ repeated slowly.

"Yes I was driving, I'm the one who drove the car into the tree," Courtney sat up and unzipped her boots, slipping them off. "It's no big deal."

"No big deal? Elizabeth Webber is in jail for attempted murder and you call it no big deal?"

"It was necessary," she pushed off from the bed and crossed to him, her hands going to his jacket and pushing it off his shoulders.

He caught her hands. "I want to know what your up to."

"I'm doing exactly what you hired me to do AJ."

"I hired you to destroy Sonny and help me get my son back, I didn't want you to send an innocent woman to jail. I don't want Elizabeth in jail."

"Jesus Nicki was right, there's no telling what you'll care about."

He caught her chin in a firm unbreakable grip. "I told you never to mention her name to me. I meant that." His eyes flashed in warning at the mention of his ex-fiancée the viper that nearly destroyed him. He felt the anger and hated the fact, that even after all this time, she still had power over him.

"Fine my sister mentioned that at times your big heart gets in the way of the big picture," Courtney twisted her head free. "Look I told you I need people out of Sonny's life. He's already pushed Alexis out over this, and because she told me about his past. Mike has been banished for good. Zander is gone, and Carly just ripped him and told him to stay away from Michael until he got himself under control," she saw the way his expression brightened at that. "He was friendly with Elizabeth, heck he helped save her life, they were friends of a sort. I needed that gone. I'm the only left, or soon I will be the only one left."

"You and Jason." AJ corrected her.

"Jason won't be with him for long," she said confidently. "Look when you picked me to pose as Janine's daughter, I didn't just say great let's go. I researched the hell out of things first. I never take a job without knowing everything I can get my hands on about my mark. I knew a lot about Sonny Corinthos. And when Alexis made the mistake of letting me stay at her place one night, I found out even more. I went through her files on Sonny, the ones when he was preparing to sue Carly for custody of their child, made interesting reading let me tell you," she smiled slyly and began to undo the buttons on his shirt. "Now I know exactly how he will react when he loses everyone, and I keep turning the screws, making it worse."

AJ could see her point about Elizabeth being a friend of Sonny's, he had seen that for himself. He also remembered talking with Hannah about how coldly Elizabeth had begun to treat her, after the truth about her being an FBI agent had come out. But he also had a lot of memories of her running around the mansion with Emily. Memories of all the times that she had risked herself to help Emily out of a mistake, and the guilt kicked in. "I'm not going to let her go to jail. I can't believe you. Why did you make it look like she tried to kill Gia? That makes no sense."

Courtney slipped his shirt off and kept her tone even. "I had to get her charged with something major. A simple DUI/Possession charge wouldn't be enough. It would be her first offense, and all she would get would be a loss of her driver's license for year, and more than likely a 6 months suspended sentence. For my plan to work, it needed to be a major charge. One that carries substantial jail time."

"No," he pushed her hands away before she could undo his belt. "I don't want her in jail at all. I want to get her out, today."

She stepped back and sized him up. "Even if keeping her there gets your son back?"

AJ hesitated, the need to get his son back in his life, was the most important thing to him. He wanted that even more than he wanted revenge against Sonny and Carly.

"After all that is why I was hired. To get your son back," she pulled her shirt off so she stood in front of him in only her bra and panties, and smiled in satisfaction when his eyes narrowed in interest. "To do that I need to break Sonny down. I need to remove every person in his life, and destroy him. I've done that, with one exception, your brother."

His interest died at the mention of the golden boy. "Jason won't turn on Sonny."

Courtney moved closer and ran a hand down his chest. "Not even for Elizabeth?"

"What do you mean?"

"He cares a lot about Elizabeth. He's the reason that Sonny has always helped her. He's also the reason that Sonny is ripping himself up right now, because he isn't helping her, and he's letting Jason down." She began to unfasten his pants, while she spoke. "What is Jason going to do when he comes back and finds out that Sonny let Elizabeth go to jail for attempted murder? That he turned her down, even when she begged him for help. That he went so far as to order his attorney not to help her?" She pressed her lips to his throat and waited for him to come to the right conclusion.

AJ couldn't help but wonder about Jason's reaction to that scenario. He knew his brother loved to save the women in his life, he loved to play the hero, when that was the last thing he was. But still he shook his head. "No. If he didn't turn on Sonny when Sonny slept with Carly, he won't turn on him now."

"Yeah but remember Carly has claws, and a golden parachute by the name of Michael. He knew that she could handle herself no matter what. But Elizabeth," she drew back and slipped her arms around his neck. "Sweet vulnerable Elizabeth in jail for something she didn't do. Being helped into jail by Sonny. This is a woman Jason cares about. A woman some people even say he loves. Could he really forgive Sonny for that?"

"I don't know." AJ answered honestly. Then the flicker of guilt, that he really hated at times, but the flicker he never wanted to lose, because then he would truly be a monster, flared up again. "I do know that I don't want her in jail."

"Jesus AJ think," infuriated she stalked away. "If Elizabeth is convicted do you think that there is any chance in hell that Jason will let her go to prison?"

"No," he answered without hesitation.

"Exactly and that's the beauty of my plan. He will break her out, before he would let her go to jail. She'll have to leave the country, and because everyone will know that he did it, so will he," she smirked. "He won't be able to come back to Port Charles without being arrested. So when Sonny falls apart, and you make your play on Carly to get your son back, Jason won't be any help. He won't be there to pull Sonny out of his head, or to help Carly, when you destroy her. That's why it had to be attempted murder. It had to be something big, to make him give up everything, it had to be someone he really cared about, someone he would do anything for. I considered Emily, but I didn't think you would like that, so I chose Elizabeth."

AJ ran the scenario through his mind and had to admit it looked good. Elizabeth would be in jail through the trial, but she wouldn't be there permanently, so that eased his guilt. And even better the golden boy would be gone forever.

"So picture Sonny, Alexis gone, Mike gone, Elizabeth gone, Emily would never forgive Sonny for sending her best friend to jail, that is if she ever managed to forgive him for what he did to you. Both Zander and Carly are gone, he can't see Michael, and finally Jason is gone too. That leaves me. And what do you think it will do to him, when I walk away with you, one of the people he hates the most in the world?" She slipped out of the rest of her clothes and pulled him towards the bed.

"He'll be left alone and beaten, and when that happens, when he feels like that, he retreats inside his mind. But this time, no one will be there, to pull him out," she pushed him down on the bed. "Do you think that is a good enough punishment for the man who took your son, and hung you on a meat hook?"

"You're inventive," he managed finally after kissing her.

"You wanted him destroyed," she straddled his lap. "I always deliver what I promise."

He tilted his head to let her nuzzle his ear. "This all hinges on Elizabeth being convicted and Jason knowing about it. How do you know she will be?"

"Oh she will, and that will be another nail in Sonny's coffin. Just in case we need more ammunition, the witnesses, the ones saying such nasty things about Elizabeth, all believe their being paid by someone in the Corinthos organization," she studied his face. "What will your brother do to Sonny when he finds out that not only was Sonny not lifting a finger to help Elizabeth, he was also paying her way into jail for 20 years?"

"If he does love her he could kill him." AJ admitted.

"Well that would clear up your custody problems now wouldn't it?" Her smile turned vicious. "Now Nic…someone once told me that you were quite insatiable," she nipped at his lip. "Is that still the case?"

Without answering her AJ quickly reversed their positions so he was lying on top of her, soon he was inside of her. He had always been attracted to her, even in those early moments with Janine. It was probably because she reminded him of her sister.

Nicki Langston had been like a siren's song to him. He could never quite break free of her, not even when she destroyed him. Even the last time he had seen her, when she admitted to taking the money Alan offered her to get out of his life, he had still wanted her. The knowledge of that had sent him hard into the bottle. So he enjoyed the fact that he was now fucking her prettier, and much more flexible little sister.

He knew that Courtney was just as much as a viper as Nicki was. But he knew that going in this time, this time he was the user not the used, this time his heart wasn't involved. He was paying her to help get his son back, and get even with the people who took him. If he had some fun with her, while that happened, the more the better. Her thighs locked around his hips drawing him further inside of her. He was in control, he was in cont…

Courtney rode the pleasure AJ was giving her, to the fullest. Like everything in her life, she loved to take advantage of opportunities. AJ being good in bed and good-looking was just another perk to this job. She felt his muscles clench and her mouth curved into a wry smile. She had thought he might press her for more details, but Nicki had been right, if you knew the triggers, AJ was easy to control. All she had to do was mention Jason, and he was willing to let his questions go.

She felt the tension build inside of her, and closed her eyes, relishing it. He thought he knew it all, but in reality, he didn't have a clue as to what was going on.

****

~Penthouse 2~

Alexis could feel the sun even before she opened her eyes, so she kept them stubbornly closed. Was there no justice in the world? Why couldn't the sun disappear? Or better yet why couldn't her headache disappear? She was never going to get drunk again, she groaned and buried her head in her pillow.

Was that coffee she smelled? 

She turned her head cautiously and sniffed the air. Definitely coffee, but why did it smell so close. The scent wafted directly under her nose, then moved on, and she groaned in disappointment.

Jax smirked at the expression on her face and leaned closer so his mouth was next to her ear. "Wake up Alexis."

"Jesus," Alexis jackknifed away from him holding her hand to her head. "Why the hell are you shouting?"

"I whispered," he corrected her, holding out his bribe.

She took the steaming mug from his hand. "I thought I kicked you out."

"You did, but that was hours ago. It's morning Alexis."

"Don't remind me," she sipped at her coffee. "I thought you were my friend. How could you let me drink so much?"

"We were celebrating your becoming an orphan." Jax reminded her, studying her for any signs of emotional pain.

"That's right I've been banished again." At the moment her head hurt too much, to feel anything but the pain, and for that she was grateful. Telling off Nikolas had hurt her deeply, so had Sonny walking away from her, when he realized she was siding against his sister. She opened her eyes and found her ex-husband studying her. "Why are you here so early?"

"Because I know you, Alexis, you would stay in bed for hours if you could. But there's a girl in the jail that needs you to focus on her case."

"Elizabeth." Alexis cried and tried to fight her way free of the covers. "I only have 2 days to get prepared for her trial. God I have so much to do."

Jax wisely kept his seat on the bed as Alexis began to move around her bedroom and mutter under her breath.

"I need to file an appearance, and get the bail issue reopened. I need to shower. I need to get my investigator on breaking those eyewitnesses. Subpoena's I got to get them out, I need to get my suit from the dry cleaner. My car is in the shop, I need my ride…."

"That's why I'm here." Jax interrupted.

Alexis crossed back to the bed, "Thanks for being here," she kissed his cheek and swiped his cup of coffee, and before he had time to complain she was in the bathroom.

Jax just shook his head and went off to try to find food. He knew it was a long shot, but maybe Kristina actually ate something besides popcorn.

****

~Penthouse 4~

"Are you sure about this?" Sonny searched the other man's eyes hoping to spot a lie.

"Positive. They've been meeting there at least three nights a week for at least 3 weeks now." Francis answered.

"Thanks." Sonny nodded in dismissal.

****

~Courthouse~

"You know this is the 8th Entry of Appearance that has been filed in this case," the clerk leaned over the counter hoping for some good gossip. "With that many attorneys coming and going, this girl must really be a trip."

Alexis raised an eyebrow at the woman. "Just file it, and these as well." She handed her another stack of paper.

"Well if it isn't the esteemed Alexis Davis. I must say I have been looking forward to meeting you."

Alexis glanced at the tall man who had joined her at the counter. In that quick glance she had sized him up and dismissed him as another goldbricking ambulance chaser, that the profession she loved, seemed to put out on a daily basis.

"So you've finally signed on to the Webber case. I've been hoping you would." He waited for her to look again and waited for the recognition to set in, but it didn't.

"And that would matter to you why?" She asked dismissively.

"I'm Duncan Attler," he held out his hand and at her blank look, his smile vanished. "The prosecutor in this case."

Alexis knew exactly who he was, she always loved to test her opposing counsel, and he had already failed. "Hello." She shook his hand, briefly then shoved some papers in them. "This saves me a trip. Here are your copies of some motions I just filed."

He scanned the documents, but his focus was soon drawn back to the woman who in front of him. "You're something of a legend in the DA's office. You've never been beaten."

"Losing is not an option."

"I agree I've never lost either," he smiled at her, showing off the capped teeth.

"Well Mr. Attler there is a first time for everything. And this case is a lot different then your previous ones. I believe the biggest you had before was a City Councilman skimming," she tutted and shook her head. "Well maybe your next opportunity in the big leagues will be better for you. There are so many holes in this case, it will more than likely be dismissed the first day."

Attler bristled, then deliberately took a breath. "I see why Dara always grimaced when she said your name."

"Where is Dara? She always made things entertaining."

"Dara has a nasty habit of losing cases. She's been reassigned." He stepped closer.

Alexis narrowed her eyes at his closeness but didn't back up.

"Perhaps we could go over which plea will suit your client best over lunch?"

She laughed and took her file stamped copies of paper from the very interested clerk. "I don't think so Mr. Attler. You see sharks and snakes just don't mix. I will see you later though, in an hour in Judge Irons chambers, to discuss bail." With that she breezed by him and out into the hall.

"Alexis you got an admirer."

"Be quiet Jax." Alexis hissed and hit the elevator button. She needed coffee.

****

~Jail One Day to Trial~

"I'm sorry Elizabeth. The judge won't budge on bail, especially with the trial starting tomorrow." Alexis pulled the glasses from her face. Losing the argument was painful, not only because Attler got to gloat, but also because Elizabeth really needed to get away from this place. Luke was right it was draining the life out of her.

"The other lawyers said it was a long shot, but thanks for trying." Elizabeth was doing her best to stay positive. It was easier today, because for the first time, she had an attorney who believed in her.

"I'm going to be buried today trying to get up through the rest of the information on your case. I was tempted to file a motion for continuance. But I decided not to. Your earlier lawyers made the mistake of fast tracking this on the docket, and also by going for a bench trial and not a jury one. I know why they did it, they wanted you to plead it out, but it doesn't make my job any easier. By arguing just before a judge there are some advantages. One of which he can see through the circumstantial evidence much easier than a jury can. And that is what makes up your case, nothing but circumstantial evidence."

Alexis checked some notes on her pad when went on. "It will also be much quicker. Judging from the evidence, the state will probably be able to present its case in less than a day. Then it will be our turn. The trial itself will probably only last two days."

Elizabeth gulped. By the end of the week she would know if she was going to jail forever or not.

"By not asking for a continuance, if we happen to lose, our case will be stronger on appeal. The appeal panel will also take into account the fact that we were locked into a bench trial, instead of a jury trial," she focused on Elizabeth again. "I won't sugarcoat things Elizabeth. We will have a fight on our hands. Circumstantial or not there is some damaging evidence that we need to counteract. The most important being, the eyewitness who says he saw you slam into that tree."

"But we know he was lying because I wasn't driving."

"I know, but I have to prove it," she began to put her papers in her briefcase. "I'll be back later, with more questions. But for now I need to go through some stuff."

"Thanks again for believing me."

"I'm going to do my best to get you out of this," Alexis vowed and patted her hand in farewell.

Elizabeth rested her head on the table while she waited for the guard to come in and bring her back to her cell. Her mind and body seemed so tired, that she would much rather stay where she was. Luke had managed to back Helena off, with the mention of some weirdly named poison, but she knew it was only a matter of time, before she started in again.

She heard the door open and took a final breath before raising her head, expecting to see the guard. But it wasn't the guard. Her mouth dropped open in surprise, and her heart swelled. "Jason?"

"Elizabeth." Jason Morgan took the seat across from her.

****

~Kelly's~

"Sonny are you going to eat that or just glare at it?" Courtney teased.

"What?" Sonny looked up into his sister's laughing eyes, then back down at his massacred pancakes. "I have other stuff on my mind." 

"I can tell," Courtney took a sip of her coffee. "Is this about your friend?"

"What friend?" Sonny frowned realizing he meant that question in more than one way.

"Elizabeth, doesn't her trial start tomorrow?"

"Yes," he nodded and leaned back in his chair. "I didn't know you were keeping up with that."

"I can read Sonny. I know for some reason she's blaming me."

"Why do you think she would do that?"

"I don't know she's your friend," she shrugged. "I have no idea why she would lie about me. I only met her that one time."

She met his eyes calmly, no fidgeting, her hands didn't shake, her expression never wavered, and yet he wondered if she was lying. "I thought you two hit it off."

Courtney could see the questions in his eyes, and launched into a story she had prepared. "I don't know about that. That guy she was with, the one named after a dog, he was a little weird, so I have to wonder how sane she is, if she is dating him."

"Lucky's had a rough few years."

"Whatever," she decided to play her ace. "I met him before, he hit on me a little bit. Nothing major but the interest was there. Maybe Elizabeth found out about that and didn't like that, so when she needed someone to blame to get out of her mess, she thought of me."

Sonny set his cup back on the table. "You look tired. Did you have a rough night?"

"No," she smiled slightly. "I went to a movie, then went back to Mike's. I was home by 11:00."

Again she met his eyes calmly, no fidgeting, her hands didn't shake, and her expression never wavered. But this time he knew she was lying.

****

~Jail~

Elizabeth quite simply had no idea what to say, her eyes drank in the sight of him as he shrugged out of the familiar leather jacket, but her mouth refused to work. For the first time since she had come to this horrible place, she gave a passing thought about how she looked. Almost immediately she gave herself a mental shake and lowered her eyes when he focused on her again. "I'm surprised to see you."

Her voice sounded rusty, almost like she hadn't used it in weeks. But it sounded good to his ears. He had missed hearing it. He remembered a comment she had made to him once. She had told him that she couldn't picture him in jail. He had said he would look the same. Seeing her in the bright orange jumpsuit, her arms chained to a table, he realized what she meant. She didn't look the same in jail either. She should never have even seen the inside of a jail much less be stuck in one. And he was determined to get her out no matter what it would take. "I'm sorry it took me so long to get here. I was a little hard to track down, and when Sonny…"

Her brain seemed to switch off at the mention of Sonny's name and she didn't hear anything else he said. Maybe it was because she had been behind bars for so long, maybe it was because she hadn't seen the sun in over a week, or maybe it was because she was starting to go crazy. Whatever the reason she wasn't sure, but in that instant a reason for him being here came to her, and it wouldn't let go.

Sonny had brought him here, to warn her. To tell her what would happen if she continued to blame Courtney. He had told her not to threaten his family, that she wouldn't like it, if she did. And to get that point across he had sent Jason to her. 

Jason was Sonny's enforcer.

Jason would believe what Sonny believed.

Jason would do what Sonny told him to do.

Jason was probably mad at her, because of the way things had ended between them. So whatever friendship they had, was long gone.

Jason would do what Sonny told him to do.

And Sonny wanted her to shut up.

"Don't say it," she whispered hoarsely, keeping her eyes on her lap.

"Say what Elizabeth?" He leaned closer trying to hear her.

"You win. Tell Sonny he wins. Just don't say anything, I can't bear to hear you threaten me."

"Threaten? What are you saying?"

"I won't say Courtney was driving anymore. I'll stop. I give up, okay Jason," a tear slipped down her cheek. "I just don't want you to say anything. As bad as our last meeting was I want to cling to that memory not this one. So tell him he wins."

"Elizabeth," he touched her hand and she jolted, so he let it go quickly. "I'm not here to threaten you."

"You're not?" She risked a glance then lowered her eyes again. "But Sonny…"

"I haven't spoken to Sonny. That's what took me so long to get here, Luke had to find me another way," he lowered his voice even more. "Why did you think I was here to threaten you?"

"I-I" she closed her eyes wearily. "I can't seem to think straight anymore. Sonny's mad at me, Nikolas is mad, Lucky is… I thought you would be mad too. I just can't handle the anger, not from you."

He hated the defeated sound in her voice and took a chance in touching her hand again. "I'm not mad. And the only reason I'm here is to help you. Someone put you in this place and all I want is to get you out of here. You don't belong in jail Elizabeth. You won't stay here."

"Aren't you going to ask me?"

"Ask you what?" He wished she would look at him, but her focus seemed to be her lap.

"If I did it."

"No."

"Why?" That brought her head up. "Because you'd help me anyway?"

"No. Because I know you didn't." He explained simply.

The simple statement opened her eyes and the hope she thought was gone forever, seemed to come back at least a little bit. "Even after what I just said to you?"

"You're scared Elizabeth. You have every right to be scared. I can see you've been trying to hang on," he studied her face and couldn't help but notice how thin it was. Her eyes seemed enormous in her white face. "You can say anything you want to me, accuse me of anything, and it won't matter, because it's not you."

She bowed her head again, breaking the eye contact. "I wish you wouldn't be nice to me Jason. I can't handle that right now."

He swallowed hard at her words and focused instead on the bruises on her wrists, before shooting a glare at the matron who was watching them through the window. "You said Sonny is mad at you?"

She nodded. "Because I told him Courtney was driving the car. Do you know who she is?"

"His sister."

"Right. He was going to help me, until I said that. Until I spit on his family. He didn't help me after that," she bit her lip and wasn't surprised to taste blood. "Maybe you should wait to help until you talk to him."

"Can you look at me?"

She shook her head.

"Why not?" They were almost whispering by now, and he wanted nothing more than to cross to her side of the table, and hold her, giving her the comfort she so obviously needed. The comfort he so wanted to give her.

"It hurts," she whispered. "Looking at you hurts."

"Why?"

"Because I look at you and see what might have been. What I could have had if I had been willing to take your hand, and take a chance at the unknown. And that hurts, it hurts so bad," she sighed. "I thought I was numb by now. But seeing your face, and hearing your voice say my name, was enough to make me start feeling again."

"About before…"

"Don't." She cried out suddenly startling them both. "Jason you're right I'm barely hanging on here. I can't think about the past, I can't think about the future. I can't even apologize, to you for everything I should. The only thing I can think about is getting through the next minute. Everything else has to take a backseat to that."

All he could feel at the moment was hate. The type of hate he hadn't felt in years. And it was all directed at the person who had put her here. But hate was the last thing she needed to hear. He touched her hand again and this time left it there. "Then that's what we'll concentrate on."

She should pull her hand away, she knew that, but she left it there anyway. And for just a minute her life didn't seem quite so scary.

****

~Penthouse 4~

"Sonny," Courtney called out letting the door slam behind her. "Are you here yet?" She waited but didn't hear anything. "Guess not," she unbuttoned her coat and turned to place it on a chair. "Jesus." She screamed and staggered back.

"Did I frighten you?" Jason asked stepping closer.

"Who the hell are you?" She placed a hand over her still racing heart. "And how did you get in here?"

"I can get in anywhere." Jason's expression was cold as he sized up the woman who was helping to punish Elizabeth.

"You need to leave. My brother will be here soon. Do you know who he is? You don't be here when he gets home. You will regret it." Courtney warned him.

"I think I'll wait Courtney."

"How did you know…" she trailed off when the fear his sudden appearance had given her faded and she placed the man in front of her. Jason Morgan. Act II in her little dance was about to commence. "Are you Jason?"

"Why are you lying about driving the car?"

Courtney blinked at the sudden question. This guy certainly hadn't heard of subtlety. "I'm not. I wasn't there."

"You're lying." Jason said simply.

She couldn't help but shiver at the cold stare he was giving her. His eyes were so cold and empty at the moment, it seemed like he was dissecting her. In spite of herself she was afraid. And because of that she fired back. "Look I'm sorry about your friend. But I can't help you out. The girl got high and got busted, that's not my fault." She moved to go by him and he caught her arm before she could take a step. 

"You're lying. I know it and you know it. The fact your willing to do it, that you are deliberately sending her to jail, makes me wonder what else you're lying about."

Courtney tried to pull her arm free. This wasn't going like she had anticipated. "I told you…"

"It doesn't matter what you say Courtney. It doesn't matter what you do. If Elizabeth goes to jail, I will hold you responsible."

She paled.

"Let her go Jason." Sonny ordered from behind him.

Jason turned his head to look at Sonny but didn't drop her arm. "Do you understand me Courtney? You better think really hard before you make your next step."

"Jason." Sonny snapped.

He let her go and turned to face his oldest friend. 

Relieved Courtney moved toward Sonny. "He's nuts."

"You need to leave Courtney." Sonny told her, never taking his eyes from Jason.

"Sonny," she touched his arm.

"Get out Courtney."

Stung she drew back, shooting Jason a glare she stomped towards the door. She stumbled slightly on the threshold and Johnny made no attempt to steady her, even though he could have. She glared at him and he eyed her coolly before closing the door, so she couldn't hear the conversation between Sonny and Jason.

~*~*~*~

"We're you even going to tell me?"

Sonny heard the ice in Jason's voice and tried to match it. "I don't know. I knew how you would react."

"She said you threatened her. Not only did you refuse to help her, you threatened her." He posed it as a question even though he knew she wasn't lying. A big part of him wanted her to be lying. Because if she wasn't then Sonny had finally crossed a line with him.

"She blamed my sister." Sonny moved to the lone bottle on the bar.

"Because she's guilty." Jason's eyes followed him to the bar and he saw the hand shake when it reached for the bottle.

Sonny felt the scotch burn his throat as he took a long drink and he concentrated on that feeling. "She's my family."

"Look at me Sonny." Jason ordered.

He kept his back to him.

"I said look at me." Jason snapped turning him around. What he saw in his eyes made him drop his hand in surprise. "You know she's lying."

Sonny couldn't meet his eyes, instead focusing on the bottle in his hand.

"Why are you turning your back on Elizabeth? Why are you turning your back on me?" Jason asked roughly.

To him Jason's voice sounded like it was coming from a long ways off. He wanted to ignore it, but he couldn't. "You don't understand. She's my family, and she said she didn't do it. I have to believe that."

"Why? You never believe people. You always believe the worst in them. You never give anyone the benefit of the doubt." Jason raged at him. Words and behavior he had never called Sonny on before began to spill out. "I've seen you cut someone dead, for what you thought was a lie. Now you know someone is lying and you're willing to destroy someone else so you can believe them."

"You don't understand Jason."

"Then explain it to me. I trusted you with the most important things in my life. Michael who you kicked out the same time you kicked Carly out. Then both of them were left unguarded for weeks at a time. I trusted you with Emily and she ended up paralyzed. And I trusted you with Elizabeth, and she's in jail." Fury wouldn't be held back anymore, and he smacked the bottle from Sonny's hand before he could take another drink. "Why?"

"She's all I have left." Sonny cried out. "Don't you see? There's no one else left. They're all gone. Courtney and you are all I have anymore. I have to believe her."

"If their gone it's because of you. Because you forced them out. I've watched you do it, time and time again. You've even tried to do it to me before. But I never left, not until now." He waited until Sonny met his eyes. "There's still time for you to fix this. But if you don't I will. And it will be the last time I ever fix one of your messes."

"Are you threatening me?" Sonny clenched his hands into fists

Jason felt the sting of tears behind his eyes as he looked in the face of the man, that in a lot of respects, he considered his father. "I guess I am."

****

~Docks~

"I'm sorry baby, but with him in town, and already suspicious. I think we need to lay low for awhile," Courtney whispered into the phone keeping one eye on her surroundings. She was still unnerved from her earlier meeting with Jason.

__

"I tried to tell you."

"Skip the I told you so's AJ. This works out perfectly. I was beginning to wonder if he would show up," she smiled wickedly. "And let me tell you he's not happy. And a lot of his unhappiness is directed at Sonny. This is going to be so good. Soon Sonny will be destroyed."

__

"And Jason and Elizabeth will be out of town."

"I told you I wouldn't let her go to jail," she huffed out a breath. He really could be anal at times.

__

"She better not." AJ warned her, then hung up.

"AJ you are so not cut out for the real world," she mumbled, before tucking the phone in her purse. She had only taken a step when someone grabbed her from behind, and covered her mouth with a large hand.

"Courtney, we meet again."

She tried to struggle but it was impossible to break the grip of the man holding her, and she felt herself being dragged back into the dark.

****

~Courthouse AM~

"All rise the Superior Court of New York, County of Port Charles, is now in session, the Honorable Jeffrey Irons presiding." The Bailiff called out stilling the conversation in the packed courtroom.

A distinguished looking older gentleman, with a close-cropped Afro, and trimmed goatee, entered the courtroom and moved directly to his chair. "Be seated," he ordered with a smack of the gavel.

"Counselors I assume by your presence here, and the lack of any new dispositive motions that you are finally ready to proceed?" He asked shortly.

"Yes your honor," Alexis spoke quickly. Having appeared in front of Cast Iron many times she knew to keep her answers brief.

"Duncan Attler for the State your honor. And I must say…"

"A yes or no will do Attler," the judge interrupted. "Are you ready to proceed?"

"Yes." Attler conceded grumpily. 

"Fine the hearing of the State of New York verses Elizabeth Webber is now open," he hit his gavel. "Proceed." 


	6. Break Him

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, I just put them in new situations

Feedback: Would be very nice.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~**~*~*~*

****

Web of Deceit

Part VI

****

~Courthouse~

"And did you run any special tests on Ms. Webber on the evening of February 1?" Attler moved towards the witness box.

"I ran the standard blood alcohol test, and also did a toxicology screen to check for any drug levels." The Doctor replied.

"And what were the results?"

"Ms. Webber registered a .11 blood alcohol level, and she also tested positive for elements of PCP."

"In your opinion, how strong of a dose was the PCP?"

"That of heavy user, given her height and weight, she would have to build up a tolerance level to ingest that much without Od'ing."

Alexis made a mark on her notepad, yet made no move to object.

"Thank you Dr. Childs," Attler turned and smirked at her. "Your witness."

"Thank you," Alexis got to her feet. "Did you also have the opportunity to run those same tests on Gia Campbell?"

"Objection," Attler shot to his feet. "Relevance."

"Your honor the defense contends that someone else was driving the car the night of the accident. That Miss Webber was drugged, rendering her incapable of driving. If Ms. Campbell, another woman who has never exhibited signs of drug use before that night, also tested positive, it is very relevant to the defense," Alexis argued.

"Overruled the witness will answer." The judge directed him.

"Yes Miss Campbell registered a .09 blood alcohol level," Dr. Childs checked his notes. "She also tested positive for a strong amount of PCP."

"Similar to Miss Webber?" Alexis moved closer.

"Yes the doses are almost equal," the doctor conceded.

"Okay now alcohol is a depressant, is that correct?"

"Yes it slows down your heart rate, making you lethargic, your reflexes will slow."

"And PCP is a stimulant?"

"Yes it speeds up your heart rate, the synapses in your brain fires quicker, producing hallucinations, and periods of hyperactivity."

"So in layman's terms, alcohol basically puts you to sleep, while PCP makes you go," Alexis pulled her glasses off. "Is that correct?"

"Yes, in layman's terms."

"So a combination of the two could counteract each other correct?"

"I suppose."

"If that is true then someone the size and weight of Miss Webber, could have ingested the amount of drugs you mentioned, without Od'ing and without building up a tolerance for it, because the alcohol offset it. Is that correct?"

"Objection draws for a conclusion."

Alexis turned to face Attler with a raised eyebrow. "I thought Dr. Childs was testifying in his capacity as a medical expert. Therefore he would be qualified to draw conclusions wouldn't he? If not, why exactly is he on the stand?"

Attler flushed.

"Sit down Attler," Judge Irons ordered. "You may proceed."

"Is that correct doctor?" Alexis inquired.

"Yes, the levels of alcohol could offset enough of the PCP, that she wouldn't have been that effected."

"Thank you no further questions," Alexis sat back at the table and whispered to Elizabeth. "I think we just opened the door in proving that you're not a junkie."

"The people call Detective Alex Garcia." Attler called out.

****

~Warehouse~

"You can imagine my surprise can't you? I hear all about Sonny Corinthos' long lost sister. I'm curious to meet her, in fact you might say I have to meet her. And who do I see when I think I'm going to meet Courtney Corinthos?" Roscoe asked. "You Traci Langston."

Courtney/Traci rubbed the back of her head. "You could have just asked to see me Roscoe, there was no need for chloroform."

"But it was so much fun," he replied with a smirk. "How is the viper these days?"

"Enjoying her forced vacation, at least for another two years, until the statute of limitations runs out." Courtney replied.

"What the hell are you pulling here Traci?"

"Do me a favor call me Courtney. I would hate for you to slip up in front of someone," she began to dig in her bag for her cigarettes.

"Don't test me too much," he warned her. "Now what kind of scam are you pulling on Corinthos?"

Courtney took her time lighting her cigarette, running through scenarios in her head. She knew Roscoe, she also knew that she would have to tell him a lot of the truth, or he would kill her. "It all started about 6 weeks ago. A guy name AJ Quartermaine came looking for someone to play a role…"

****

~Courthouse~

"Are you positive?" Alexis asked.

"Lady you can ask me twelve different ways and the answer will always be the same. I saw her," he pointed at Elizabeth. "Deliberately run into that tree."

Alexis turned away before the judge could see her frustrations. She hadn't found the hammer to break Curtis Longer. He was the strongest non circumstantial evidence that the state had and she hadn't been able to find a way to prove he was lying. She saw Jason walk in the doors, he nodded at her, and she headed for her table. "I'm through with this witness, but I reserve the right to recall him at a later date."

"So noted." The Judge agreed. "Call your next witness.

"The people call Rodney Bartlett to the stand."

"What do you have?" Alexis whispered.

Jason handed her some papers. "He's dirty here's the proof."

She took the folder warily. "Jason is this evidence proving his dirt clean? It has to stand up in a court of law, if you got it illegally it won't do me any good."

"Jason don't get yourself in trouble," Elizabeth whispered.

"A copy of this was obtained by your investigator through a warrant." Jason met her eyes evenly.

Alexis took the forward and refused to question whether the warrant was valid, or if Jason had the material before the investigator did. At the moment she couldn't afford to be that ethical.

****

~Warehouse~

"I can't believe he bought it just like that. From what I know about Sonny Corinthos he would have demanded blood tests." Roscoe crossed to the coffee machine.

"He believed Mike had a kid with Janine Matthews, because Mike knows he did and admitted it. He believes that Mike abandoned the kid when she was almost 4, because Mike has admitted he did. Mike doesn't have any idea what the kid looks like now. So when Janine produced a girl and called her Courtney, he believed that's who I was. Sonny's so whacked in the head over Mike abandoning him all those years ago, he took one look at me, and knew I was feeling that same abandonment," Courtney explained holding out her cup for a refill. "Bam instant connection."

"So Janine is on this too?"

"Hell she went to AJ when she found out that Mike was Sonny's father, then they came to me, to play the role of Courtney. She filled in a few blanks about fried sandwiches and walking home from an amusement park, and Mike said he would know me anywhere." She laughed. "He was such a sucker."

"So Corinthos really believes you're his sister?" Roscoe moved quickly and before she realized it, he had his hand around her throat. "So if I kill you now, he'll think he lost his family."

"True," Courtney spoke easily even though the grip on her neck hurt. "But that would be stupid on your part. You never struck me as stupid before."

He tightened his grip. "I'd watch your mouth, I might just take out what I owe Nicki on you."

"Think about it Roscoe. You kill me, and you got a street war. And with Morgan back in town, I don't think you want that."

His eyes narrowed. "He's not in town I would have heard if he was."

"Well he is," she twisted the knife. "Haven't you spent the last 8 months hiding from Morgan? Do you really want to start a street war, when he's in town? I thought you wanted to live."

His hand tightened convulsively on her throat. "I was not hiding from Jason Morgan."

She gripped his hand, pulling it away from her neck. "If I can guarantee you the Port Charles territory, without any bloodshed, will you take it?"

Intrigued Roscoe backed away. "You could do that?"

"Oh I've already started doing that. Soon there won't be enough of Sonny left to put up a fight, and as for Jason," she perched on the edge of the desk. "He'll soon be a distant memory."

"Tell me more."

****

~Courthouse~

"Do you recognize these?" Alexis held out the papers Jason had given her.

Rodney took them. "Dude these are my bank records."

"I'd like these admitted into evidence as Defense Exhibit 3," Alexis held out a copy to the clerk.

"So noted."

"Can you tell me why you made a deposit of $10,000 into your account on February 1, and made another $10,000 deposit today?"

"Objection relevancy." Attler cried out.

"I'm curious as to how someone who made $28,473 last year, found a way to make $20,000 in two weeks." Alexis explained.

The Judge sighed. "Your fishing counselor. You better catch something," he leaned closer. "And soon."

"You are employed at the Seascape Restaurant as a valet, and you testified earlier that you saw Elizabeth Webber, driving the car, that contained Ms. Campbell, approximately 20 minutes before the accident. Is that correct?"

"Yes."

"You also testified, that you overheard Miss Webber say that she was going to, and I quote," Alexis looked at her notebook. _"Kill that bitch tonight."_

Rodney nodded his head.

"Mr. Bartlett you need to speak for the record," Alexis informed him.

"Oh, right." He called out loudly.

"About how far away was Miss Webber, when you heard her threaten to kill Miss Campbell?" Alexis kept her back to him while she asked the question. When he didn't answer, she turned around. "Mr. Bartlett, how far away was she?"

Rodney scratched his neck and thought about it. "Probably the same as me, and the second row. She had her back to me, and was talking to herself."

Alexis crossed to that spot. "Here," she asked pausing next to a wide-eyed Amy Vining who was taking notes. Again she turned when he didn't answer. She spoke in her normal tone of voice. "Was she here?"

Rodney squinted at her. "Yeah."

"And she had her back to you. Your sure of that?"

"Yes."

"Okay," she turned so she had her back to him and spoke in her normal tone of voice again. "What am I saying now Mr. Bartlett."

Elizabeth looked over at the witness who didn't answer. He was looking at Alexis like he was waiting for something, but he didn't answer. Puzzled she looked at Jason who just inclined his head in the witness' direction again.

"Mr. Bartlett?" Alexis turned back to him. "What did I say?"

"Uh…" Rodney fidgeted.

"Maybe you couldn't hear me because everyone was talking," Alexis offered. "If I could have complete silence please?" She asked the packed courtroom, before turning around again. "Maybe you should buy a hearing aid."

Luke snorted and patted Elizabeth on the shoulder, when she turned to look at him.

Again, Rodney didn't answer, by now he was not only fidgeting, he was perspiring profusely.

Alexis turned around. "Or maybe you couldn't hear, because you are over 55% deaf in both ears. And you have been ever since a Monsters of Rock concert you attended in your teens?" She picked up another file from her desk. "Isn't that right?"

"I can hear." Rodney snarled.

"I'd like this to be marked as Defense Exhibit 3 please." She gave a copy to the clerk. "These are your medical records. It seems you tried to join the army last year and couldn't because you flunked the hearing test. You were classified legally as deaf."

"I can read lips," he shot back.

Alexis leaned on the bar of the witness box. "So how did you read Elizabeth Webber's lips when she had her back to you?"

"I … she … shit," he groaned. 

Attler buried his head in his hands, when he saw his witness go down in flames. The courtroom buzzed with laughter, and the Judge hit the gavel quieting them.

"So would you like to answer my original question now?" Alexis asked. "Where did you get the $20,000?" She shifted when he tried to look past her, so he could only see her face. "Do you know what the penalty for lying under oath is? Because if Mr. Attler can't tell you, I'll be happy too."

"Fine," Rodney caved. "I was told to say that Elizabeth Webber was driving, and that she threatened to kill Gia Campbell. I was paid to say it."

"Order." The judge bellowed when the courtroom burst into noise.

"Who paid you?" Alexis asked.

"I don't know. It was some guy, I never got his name. He just showed up that night, and offered me $10,000 if I told the police what I testified too."

"$10,000?"

"Yes." He looked past her to Elizabeth. "I don't even remember the girl. It was cold that night, I spent more time by the radiator than anywhere else. I had some money on a basketball game."

"What about the second $10,000 payment?" Alexis asked.

"A guy came to me yesterday. He wanted me to be sure that I testified. He wanted me to be sure that I stuck with what I told the police."

"He told you to lie."

"No. He just wanted me to stick with the story I told the police. He seemed convinced I was telling the truth. I had planned on saying it anyway, so I just took the money."

A part of Alexis couldn't believe how stupid Rodney was. She wondered what else he would confess too, if she asked the right question. "Do you know who this second man was?"

"No, I never seen him before yesterday. I'll never forget his car though. A sweet 2002 Jag," Rodney whistled.

Alexis jolted at the description of the car, and Elizabeth paled when she heard it.

"Anyway," Rodney drew himself away from the memory. "The guy's here now."

Alexis gripped the bar, separating the spectators from the attorney's desk, hard and searched for a face. "Could you point him out?"

"It's him," Rodney pointed. "The dude with the weird black hair."

She closed her eyes, for a minute. "Let the record show that the witness identified Nikolas Cassadine." She said finally her eyes searching her nephew's face.

****

~Warehouse~

"So there you have it. I isolate Sonny, remove everyone he ever cared about, including Jason Morgan. And leave him broken and alone. Thereby leaving Port Charles for the taking. I don't want to run the territory. I just want some of the cash." Courtney summed it up.

"That's a unique plan."

"Thank you. It's also a smart one. You could go for all out war if you want. But look at what happened to Rivera, Harry Silver, Moreno, Sorel, when they tried to do it violently," she saw his raised eyebrow. "I live in Atlantic City you hear things," she explained. "This way is so much more effective, because not only will Sonny be beaten, he'll still be alive, and have to live with that. Until someone finally puts a bullet in his brain, that is."

"Are you sure Morgan will turn on him?" Roscoe asked. The idea was tempting, and it suited his style more. Although he didn't mind violence, he loved a good trick. Especially one that left the victim praying they were dead.

"He already has. I told you the Webber girl was the key to breaking his loyalty. Jason knows I'm lying, Sonny might even know I'm lying, but it doesn't matter to him. Let me tell you, it matters to Jason though." 

"There is a possible downside, two of them actually. What if the Webber girl beats the charge?"

"I've taken care of the witnesses, she won't, and even if by some miracle she did, you could always go back to the old-fashioned way of killing Sonny and Jason." Courtney explained, digging for her breath spray. It wouldn't do to get caught with cigarette breath.

"That is always a possibility," Roscoe agreed. "But what happens if the real Courtney shows up?"

"That's the kicker," Courtney narrowed her eyes. "Janine dumped the kid a week after she left Mike, she blackmailed a relative into raising her as one of her own. She doesn't even know she was adopted."

"Still if she shows up."

"Oh she's already showed up, in fact she's been living here for years. But not for very much longer," her smile turned evil. "She's about to be sent to prison for 20 years for attempted murder, and her brother is helping to pave the way."

****

~Courthouse~

"You know I don't think Attler is liking you very much at the moment," Jax whispered to Alexis. "If your not careful he's going to stop asking you out."

Alexis glared at him. "I am not interested in any plastic, polished, smarmy politician type loser."

Jax studied the man at the far table. "I thought he might be your type," he turned back. "After all you did date Ashton."

She narrowed her eyes. "And I married you. Sooner or later a woman has to raise her standards."

"Alexis," Audrey joined them. "Bartlett admitted he was lying is that enough to end this?"

Alexis waited until Luke joined them, and Elizabeth and Jason looked up from their quiet conversation as well. "I wish I could say it's as good as you think it is, but it isn't. Basically we managed to turn Bartlett into a lame duck."

"What do you mean Natasha?" Luke demanded.

"It means the state can't use him for their case and we can't use him for ours. He's admitted to perjury. He will obviously lie to anyone as long as he gets paid. The judge can't honestly believe anything Bartlett says, not even if he says the sky is blue. He had no credibility."

"So it's still bad?" Elizabeth asked. 

"Yes," Alexis admitted honestly, refusing to sugarcoat things for Elizabeth. They had a long way to go. "There is a bright spot though, the state can't use him either, and therefore one of their key witnesses is gone. The only person who heard you say you were going to kill Gia, isn't believable."

"But what about those journals they said I wrote?" Elizabeth asked. 

"One thing at a time Elizabeth," Luke answered. "One thing at a time."

"The state is building a house of cards," Alexis explained. "Its looks good from the outside, at some angles it even looks rock solid, but in reality it is made out of nothing but cards. All you need to do to bring it down, is take away enough cards. Today we took away a card, the house hasn't fallen down yet, but it is shaking."

Elizabeth sighed and turned away.

"She's right Elizabeth." Jason said quietly. "We got rid of one of their witnesses today."

"Yeah, but not the critical one. The guy who said I did it deliberately, he was rock solid," she whispered. "I watched the judge when he was testifying. He was hanging on every word. He believed him. Then Garcia brought up those journals and pictures they found in my studio. Stuff I never even saw before. And now I find out, someone is paying to convict me, that one of my oldest friends," she stopped for a second and swallowed hard. "Paid someone to put in jail."

Jason kept his eyes on her, but was aware that the others had pulled back to give them privacy, still he kept his voice low. "I know this has to hurt you. But you can't give up. I know it might look bad now, but Alexis is right, the state doesn't have a case, because you didn't do it."

"Luke didn't do it, and they almost convicted him." Elizabeth argued.

"Luke is his own worst enemy," Jason countered. "He looks guilty even when he's asleep."

Her eyes widened at the unexpected joke, and she smiled slightly.

Jason relished the smile, small though it was. It was the first one he had seen since he had gotten back in town. "Remember what we talked about at the jail?" She nodded. "Remember that. All you have to concentrate on, is getting through the next minute, the rest will take care of itself."

Elizabeth reached put slowly, her hand shook as she hesitated for a minute, then moved on and took his hand. "It may be selfish of me. But I'm glad you're here. I couldn't get through this without you."

"Yes you could," Jason replied. "You're strong."

"No," she shook her head and searched his eyes. "This time I'm not that strong. This time I'm leaning on you."

Her words triggered a memory. "You can lean on me, I'm a lot stronger than I look."

Elizabeth's eyes warmed as she shared the memory.

'All rise." The Bailiff called out, when the door opened and the judge walked back into the courtroom.

Alexis sat as soon as she could. "You remember what we talked about?" She asked Elizabeth.

"About the witnesses?"

"Yes. I'm going to have to go after them. It might get ugly, but I have to do it."

"The people call Lucas Spencer." Attler called out.

Elizabeth turned and watched her former fiancé enter the courtroom. He looked right at her, then his eyes moved to Jason and he grimaced, before moving on and taking the stand.

"Elizabeth?" Alexis asked. "They're bringing him in to prove motive. I have to break him."

She turned back and looked at Luke, who leaned over closer to the bar. "Luke?"

"Lucky made his own choice," Luke whispered. "He'll have to live with it."

Elizabeth sighed and found the need to protect and save Lucky. A need she that had overwhelmed her for the last two years, wasn't there anymore. "Break him Alexis."

****

~Wyndamere~

Gia moved around her room, ignoring the destruction on the floor. She'd had a fit during the night and had shattered every mirror on the third floor, before locking herself in this room.

Nikolas had been frantic, demanding she let him in, and when she wouldn't he had snuck through the tunnels and surprised her. He ended up sleeping in the chair, when she refused to speak to him. He wasn't quitting on her, no matter how badly she wanted him too.

Partially frowning she moved to the window, she didn't want him to quit on her. Yet she didn't want to see him either. She glanced down at the ring on her finger. A ring she had thrown at him last night. A ring she had found on her finger again when she had woken up this morning. He definitely wasn't quitting.

She moved over to one of his jackets that was on the floor, sighing she picked it up and pressed her nose into the soft cloth hoping to smell him. She loved him. If she didn't love him so much, maybe it would be easier for her to be around him. But because she loved him, she knew he deserved better than what she could give him. Their proposed marriage had always been unequal. He was bringing in money and a title, and she was bringing in her love and her looks. 

And now one of them was gone.

She put on his coat and moved back to the window seat. He was going to be one of wealthiest men in the world. He had already told her about the parties and meetings that they would have to attend. How could he attend with her looking the way she did?

She tucked her hands in his pocket, and pulled her hand back out when she felt some paper. She studied the wrinkled envelope in her hand. _Gia_ was scrawled across it, but she didn't remember seeing it.

She opened it and began to read. She had only made it past the first sentence when the words hit her.

****

~Penthouse 4~

Courtney hesitated outside the door, she needed a minute to gear herself up for the next performance of the day. A part of her would be so glad when this job was finished. Not only would she be wealthy, she wouldn't have to constantly be on her toes anymore. Time to be the dutiful sister. She knocked once then opened the door. "Sonny?"

"Courtney." Sonny got up from the couch, where he had been waiting for her.

"Mike said you called wanting to see me." She moved into the room and took off her coat. "What's up?"

"The truth Courtney. That is what's up."

"What about it?"

"You're going to tell me the truth," he informed her. "Or you are going to walk out that door and never come back."

Courtney sucked in a breath when she saw his expression. A strange determination and coldness was in his eyes. A coldness, that hadn't been there when he had spoken to her before. For the first time since she had met him, she felt like he was someone to be afraid of.


	7. Singing must do wonders

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters or have the right to use them, yet I do anyway.

Feedback: Is the only way I get paid so let me know please.

****

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Web of Deceit

Part VII

****

~Courthouse~

"Just a few more questions Mr. Spencer," Attler informed his witness. "Now you've testified you've known Ms. Webber for close to five years now. Is that correct?"

"Yes."

"And during this time you've probably come to know her better than anyone, is that correct?"

"We're engaged," Lucky said in explanation. "There's nothing I don't know about Elizabeth, that is until…" he hesitated. "I know her."

"Using your vast knowledge of how Miss Webber normally behaves has she been acting like herself in the last few weeks?"

"Objection your honor. Unless Mr. Spencer has suddenly become a licensed psychiatrist and has been treating Miss Webber, he is not qualified to answer this question." Alexis interrupted.

"Your honor, I'm merely asking Mr. Spencer to state his conclusions of Miss Webber's behavior as of late, and compare them to the behavior he is used to seeing from her."

The Judge hesitated for a second. "I'll allow it for now, but get to the point soon Counselor."

Disappointed Alexis sat back down, the same time Bobbie Spencer eased into the courtroom and took a seat next to her brother.

"Please answer Mr. Spencer, has Miss Webber been exhibiting any unusual behavior in the last several weeks?"

"Well," Lucky hesitated his eyes going to Elizabeth.

"You are under oath Mr. Spencer." Attler prodded him.

"She hasn't been acting like the person I've known for years no," Lucky conceded.

"In what way?"

"Objection."

"Your honor I'm merely asking what the witness observed of Miss Webber's behavior I'm not asking for him to give me a reason for it."

"Overruled. Continue Mr. Attler."

"She called off our wedding for no real reason. She ran away from me and refused to speak to me for several days. When I did finally see her, she refused to continue on in our relationship. She said we had changed."

"And this was unusual in what way?"

"Elizabeth has always wanted to see and be around me. Ever since she came to town, she has liked and wanted to be with me. Once we fell in love it only became more extreme. She fought and fought for me for years, and now that we were finally back together, she suddenly didn't want me anymore. It didn't make any sense, I mean she died for me how could she suddenly say we were over?" Lucky explained earnestly. "Something had to be wrong with her, something had to be going on, for her to just walk away from me."

Elizabeth just shook her head, if she had enough energy she would get mad, at herself for staying with Lucky for as long as she had. But she didn't have the energy, so she settled for feeling for sorry Lucky.

Luke observed his son with a blank expression on his face. His mind couldn't help but replay all the conversations him and Lucky had, had about Elizabeth. About how much he loved her, and would never, ever, hurt her. It was hard to believe that it was his son up there on the stand, deliberately hurting Elizabeth. The more he watched Lucky the sicker he became. It was almost as if Lucky wasn't Lucky anymore.

"So this abrupt change in character coincided with her return before Christmas?" Attler asked.

"Yes, she was determined to get married on New Years, and I didn't want to disappoint her, then New Years arrived and it was like she was a different person."

"Do you think drugs could explain Miss Webber's actions?"

"Objection calls for a conclusion Mr. Spencer is not qualified to make." Alexis interjected.

"I'll rephrase," Attler offered. "Did you ever see Miss Webber take drugs?"

"No," he hesitated. "Well there was that time at a rave, but those were slipped in her drink."

"So you have seen Miss Webber under the influence of drugs before?"

"Yes."

"The behavior she exhibited when she was, was it similar to how she had been acting after New Years?"

Lucky thought back to the rave, she had been angry with him, at first, then she had become amorous with him. This time she had arrived back in town and immediately crawled into his bed. Then later she became angry with him, for no reason. He had told her he still wanted to marry her, that he would spend his life with her, even though he didn't remember loving her. Yet she had still turned him down, and every time they had seen each other since then, she had put up barriers, and refused to start over with him. She was acting irrational and out of control just like she had been that night.

"Mr. Spencer?" Attler prompted.

"I'm sorry Elizabeth," Lucky whispered. "Yes," he spoke louder.

Elizabeth closed her eyes in disbelief.

Luke could only stare at him, and the little nugget in his brain that was telling him that Lucky wasn't his Lucky, began to grow.

"Is he nuts?" Bobbie whispered to Luke.

Jason clenched his fists. He couldn't believe Lucky could be so cruel to Elizabeth.

"I don't blame her for feeling out of control," Lucky went on desperately. "Normally when she feels out of control she does something stupid or she talks to me. But this time thanks to Gia, she couldn't talk to me, so she must have started taking drugs to ease the pain in her life." 

"Why thanks to Gia?" Attler pounced.

"What?" Lucky paled when he realized what he said.

"What did Miss Campbell have to do with Miss Webber not being able to speak to you?"

"She," Lucky trailed off, finally realizing that what he was saying was only making things worse for Elizabeth and not helping her. He had been so sure that if he testified he would be able to explain away Elizabeth's actions. He would explain that she was just reeling from finding out he didn't love her. Once the judge knew that he would know that she never meant to kill Gia, that she was just angry and lashing out, like Elizabeth had the tendency to do.

But now he had a feeling he was making things worse instead of better.

"Your Honor can you please instruct the witness to answer?" Attler asked when the boy quit speaking.

"Mr. Spencer you are still under oath and required to answer the questions posed to you truthfully."

"Gia was the one who told Elizabeth that I didn't love her anymore. She told her right before our wedding, and that's why Elizabeth ran off." Lucky admitted finally. "I was mad at Gia too. I was angry as well, I wanted her to pay for doing that to Elizabeth."

"You may have been angry but you didn't try to kill Miss Campbell. Miss Webber was angry as well and she did try to kill Miss Campbell." Attler drove the point home.

"Objection," Alexis shot to her feet, the same time the courtroom began to buzz.

****

~Wyndamere~

__

Gia,

I don't know when or if you will ever get this letter. I asked Bobbie to sneak it to you, because I knew Nikolas wouldn't give it to you voluntarily. Hopefully one day you will see this though.

Where to start? I composed this a million times in my mind, but now that I'm finally writing it I can't remember how it was supposed to go. Story of my life I guess.

First off, I'm sorry about your injuries. I can only imagine the pain you are going through. I know how strong you are, so I'm sure you will come through this fine. But I also know how scary the unknown can be, and right now, I have a feeling you may be feeling that.

I know we've never been friends, and who knows if we ever will be. But you once did me a huge favor, and I never said thank you. You told me a truth that was staring me in the face. A truth I should have seen months earlier, but a truth I didn't let myself see until you spoke the words.

You told me that truth and I yelled at you. I called you names, I basically treated you like crap and you took it from me. Given our history, you had more than a right to say I told you so later on, yet you never did. So I guess that's two thanks I owe you. So this is late and I don't know if you want it, but thank you for being a friend to me, when my own friends weren't. Thank you for telling me the truth about Lucky.

I know that you've heard a bunch of stuff about me by now. The biggest being that I tried to kill you. I want you to know, that I didn't do this. That I would never try to kill you, I hope that you know that. 

Take care of yourself.

Elizabeth

Gia read the letter twice before crumpling it in her hand. She never would have believed it if she hadn't read it with her own eyes. Elizabeth Webber actually thanking her for something. Nikolas had tried to shield her from what was going on, but she knew that he believed Elizabeth had tried to kill her. In fact she knew he was at the Court right now watching the trial. 

She had been subpoenaed by Alexis to testify, much to Nikolas' horror. But when it became apparent that she didn't remember the accident, it was decided she didn't need to come. And for that she was grateful. She didn't want to go outside. For the first time she has glad Wyndamere was on an island, it kept the reporters and photographers away from her.

It was strange that Elizabeth hadn't asked for any help from her though. She knew that Elizabeth was saying that someone else was driving, yet she didn't mention that in the letter. Why didn't she mention it? Why would she bother to smuggle in a letter to her, when all it said was thank you? 

It didn't make sense. She got to her feet and moved to the window, her stomach rolled around, reminding her that she hadn't eaten in hours, and she put a hand on it.

__

"I don't feel well."

Gia rested her head on the cold glass, while the memories played with her memory.

__

"My stomach and my head feels weird. Gia…"

She closed her eyes, and perspiration broke out on her brow and she was thrown back into the memory of that night.

****

~Penthouse 4~

"Sonny what is going on? I don't know what you think I'm lying to you about, but I'm not." Courtney informed him.

"Don't," he held up a hand in warning. "Try to play me. I know you've been lying, you know it too. But the lying stops now. What happened the night of the accident?"

"I already told you…"

Sonny stalked past her and opened the door. "Goodbye Courtney, don't ever come back."

Stunned she could only stare at him. She read the complete lack of expression on his face, along with the determination in his eyes, and realized he meant it. She turned away and fell on the area the wet bar had been, before he had shattered it. She was startled to realize it had been replaced by a flower arrangement, there was no booze to be seen anywhere. This wasn't good.

"In or out Courtney it's your choice. But if you stay you tell me the truth. You lie to me one time, and your out." Sonny informed her. "So make up your mind."

Her mind raced and she knew she was stuck, at least for now. "What do you want to know?" She asked wearily.

"The accident." Sonny closed the door and moved back to the couch.

"I ran into Elizabeth and Gia at the bar. They were about ready to leave when I joined them. I had run out of Mike's when you showed up yelling, breaking things up with him and Janine. I was angry and tired, so when I saw them it was easy to join them for a toast," she launched into the story she had prepared just in case she was ever placed in this position.

"After that they wanted to leave, and go to a new club and asked me to go with them. They were celebrating the fact that they were dateless at the moment, apparently they'd each had a fight with the man in their life. And I hadn't been to a club since I've been here, so I went along."

"Who drove?"

She took a seat next to him and didn't meet his eyes. "I was mostly sober, so I did."

Sonny wearily pinched the bridge of his nose, he had known that. He had been lying to himself for days, but he had known the truth all along. He couldn't help but taste the bitter sting that truth brought out in him.

"Why didn't you tell the truth? Why did you make it look like Elizabeth was driving? Why did you leave the accident scene?"

The questions were fired at her, but she was well prepared. "I was scared. Sonny we haven't talked a lot about my past, but I do have one. I've gotten a ticket for DUI before, in fact it caused me to lose my driver's license until I was 18. I couldn't have another strike on my record. So I moved Elizabeth into the front seat and took off," she filled her eyes with tears. "I'm not proud of what I did, but I was afraid, a little tipsy, and my head hurt from where I hit the steering wheel."

Sonny just shook his head.

"I was going to come forward the next day. I had time to think, I couldn't sleep at all that night because I was feeling so guilty. I was on my way to the police station when I saw the morning headlines. The one that said Elizabeth Webber was going to be charged with premeditated attempted murder, and I changed my mind."

She got to her feet and began to prowl the room. "How could I confess that I had been driving not Elizabeth? With the evidence against her, they would think I was the one trying to kill Gia not her. So I kept quiet, and all this stuff came out about Elizabeth. And I began to wonder if she hadn't intended on killing Gia anyway, only the accident happened before she could."

"She wouldn't. Someone set her up," his eyes were hooded while he focused on her. "Any idea who?"

If she was nervous she didn't show it. "If that's your way of accusing me of setting her up, you can just forget it. What possible motive would I have to set her up? I'd met her once, before the night of the accident, there was no reason for me to frame her for attempted murder. I knew that but I couldn't prove it, I didn't know if anyone would believe me."

"Why didn't you tell me when I asked you?"

"I was afraid. I didn't know if you would believe me. I knew you had been close to her, before. I was afraid you'd think I set her up for a murder charge. Also," her bottom lip trembled. "I know you don't tolerate people who mess up. You kicked Mike out of your life, I heard you kicked your ex out for messing up, I didn't want to be kicked out of your life, because of a stupid mistake on my part."

Sonny flinched at that. It was true he didn't tolerate very much. His double standards were never so apparent to him. "So you decided to let an innocent woman stay in jail, possibly go to prison for something she didn't do, just because you were afraid I'd kick you out of my life?"

She didn't like the doubt she heard in his voice and quickly went to work on erasing it. "I knew she was your friend, so I knew you would have Alexis defend her," she saw him wince. "Besides I knew she was innocent, so how could they convict her?"

Shaking his head at her naiveté, Sonny got to his feet. "Believe it or not innocent people go to jail every day."

"Do you understand why I stayed quiet?"

"No," Sonny shook his head. "But I can't change it. I can't change what I did either," he sighed. "So you were driving, but that was it, you didn't plant anything in her studio, or pay off the witnesses?"

Insulted she moved to her coat. "Jesus Sonny I'm not a monster. I messed up, but I wouldn't deliberately put someone in jail. If she had been convicted I was going to confess and get her out," she put on her coat. "You're not worth my time, if you don't believe that. I'm so out of here."

"I didn't say I didn't believe you," Sonny corrected quickly. "But if you didn't do those things who did?"

"I don't know? What about her ex? He seems like a whack job, and you said yourself she was pulling away from him, maybe he didn't like that," a flash of inspiration came to her and she went with it, with both barrels loaded. "Or maybe it was aimed at you."

"What do you mean?"

"Everyone knows how close the two of you are. Maybe they tried to get to you through her. Take away one of your closest friends," she hesitated. "Maybe cause problems between you and Jason."

Sonny closed his eyes at the mention of Jason's name. The threat Jason had leveled at him yesterday, was as hard for him to hear, as it had been for Jason to say. And now, that Courtney raised the thought, he realized her idea could be true. His enemies would love to split him and Jason apart. Using Elizabeth would be an effective tool. If that was the case he had a very dangerous enemy out there, an enemy worse then Sorel or Moreno could have ever dreamed of being. Instead of violence, they used the more effective tool of betrayal.

"Are you going to get that?" Courtney asked when someone knocked on the door. When he didn't answer she opened it herself. "Yes?"

"Courtney Matthews?" A young guy of about 24 asked.

"Yes."

"Here," he held out a paper to her and without thinking she took it. "You've been subpoenaed. Have a nice day." With that he turned and headed for the elevator, nearly knocking down Johnny who was just getting off of it.

Courtney frowned down at the subpoena in her hand. Damn, Alexis had moved quick.

"Come on," Sonny spoke from behind her, startling her.

"Where?"

"The Courthouse, you have to testify." Sonny headed for the elevator.

Courtney blanched. "But what am I supposed to say?"

"The truth Courtney," Sonny moved on to the elevator, and Johnny held it open when Courtney made no move to follow him.

"But they could put me in jail." 

"You can run. I won't try to stop you," Sonny offered. "But I will go to the court and tell them you were driving."

"You'd turn on me?" Stunned she could only stare at him in shock.

"If you run yes. If you stay and tell the truth, I will help you no matter what. But either way Elizabeth Webber goes free today." Sonny waited. "It's your choice."

****

~Courthouse~

"Mr. Spencer," Alexis started off before Attler even had the time to take his seat. "You say Miss Webber has been behaving irrationally, is that correct?"

"Yes." Lucky agreed.

"And what do you deem as rational behavior Mr. Spencer?" Alexis began easily enough.

"Uh," he scratched his chin. "Acting normally, like everyone else."

"Like you have been?"

"Yes."

"So you were acting rationally when you attacked a man on the docks and tried to cut his throat."

"Objection," Attler shot to his feet.

"Withdrawn," Alexis waved a hand in his general direction and moved on. "A rational person would marry someone they didn't love anymore?"

"Well, you don't know the situation," Lucky hedged. "It's complicated."

"Okay," Alexis thought about it again. "So you were just acting rationally when you shoved Stefan Cassadine down a flight of stairs."

"Objection."

"You're honor Mr. Attler opened this area when he asked Mr. Spencer to judge if Miss Webber was behaving rationally these last few weeks. I need to know what he defines as rational." Alexis argued.

"I agree Ms. Davis, but please remember Mr. Spencer isn't on trial here, Miss Webber is."

"Well maybe he should be the one." Alexis commented.

"Objection."

"Sorry your honor," Alexis turned back to Lucky. "So where were we? Oh yes, rational behavior. Were you acting rational when you stood on the ledge of a roof and threatened to jump? Or were you acting rationally when you plunged a needle into your father's chest…"

"Objection."

"A needle filled with a drug you thought would kill him."

"Objection." Attler cried again.

"Ms. Davis," the Judge began warningly.

"Or was it rational when you made a shrine to Miss Webber, full of photographs, then conveniently forgot Miss Webber's presence in your life for five years?"

"Ms. Davis." The Judge brought the gavel down with a bang.

"Yes your honor?" Alexis looked at him blankly.

"Come here," he ordered and waited for her and Attler to join him. "There isn't a jury for you two to try to impress. There is only me, and I don't impress easily. So let's cut the cheap theatrics."

"You're honor, the only evidence the State has offered as motive for my client to kill Gia Campbell, is the testimony of Mr. Spencer. The defense needs to be able to show the fallacy of his testimony. We are talking about convicting someone for attempted murder on the testimony of a jilted lover after all."

"You are forgetting the journals and pictures we found in her studio documenting her stalking of Miss Campbell and planning her death for weeks." Attler retorted.

"Journals that were typed on a machine my client has never seen before. Journals and photos that have no fingerprints on them at all," Alexis shot back.

"Enough," the judge waved them away from the bench. "Ms. Davis you may proceed, but tread carefully, the leash I'm giving you is very short."

Alexis nodded, satisfied her point had been made she moved on. "Those instances I asked you about, were they done with you in a rational frame of mind?"

"No," Lucky shook his head in disgust. "You know I was brainwashed then. I would never do those things, unless I was forced too."

Alexis saw the judge lean forward in interest and was glad. "Brainwashed?"

"Yes Helena Cassadine and Cesar Faison brainwashed me with a large diamond called the ice princess and they basically controlled my mind for a year and a half until I finally broke free of them."

Attler smothered a groan.

"You broke free," Alexis nodded. "Can you tell me how you did that?"

"Several ways, Elizabeth helped me the first time, when we found out the trigger that Helena was using to control me."

"That was?"

"Protect your queen. She said that and I went in a trance," Lucky explained.

Alexis moved away from him and studied the gallery of spectators, most were shaking their head in disbelief. It confirmed her belief that if they lost and did appeal, a jury would help her win on retrial. "Did you fight it anyway else?"

"Well one night on the docks, when Helena confronted me I ignored her by singing."

She turned back to face him. "Singing what?"

"Take me out to the ballgame."

Laughter broke out in the courtroom and Attler reached for his water pitcher. This wasn't looking good.

Lucky reddened at the laughter. "I also went to therapy."

Finally, Alexis thought, smothering her own smile. "You saw a psychiatrist?"

"Yes for awhile I saw Dr. Kevin Collins."

"You said for awhile, you are no longer seeing him?"

"No, I'm fine now."

"Oh," Alexis moved closer. "Did he tell you that?"

"No. I just don't need anymore help."

"Did he agree to that? Dr. Collins I mean, did he agree that you were," she spread her arms. "Cured?"

"Not really," he shrugged dismissively.

"So he wanted to keep seeing you?"

"Yes."

"But you felt like you didn't need his help anymore."

"I told you I'm cured." Lucky said through clenched teeth.

"Cured," Alexis nodded. "So even though a trained professional has said you still need medical help, you think you're cured?"

"I am," he cried loudly, before trying again. "I'm fine now."

"If you say so," Alexis rolled her eyes. "Singing must do wonders."

"Objection."

"So again back to what you consider rational," Alexis hurried on. "You saw nothing wrong, with sleeping with a woman, lying to her that you loved her, and marrying her, when the whole time, you didn't love her? That was completely rational to you?"

"No, yes," Lucky trailed off in confusion.

"And when she found out that you didn't love her, and walked away from you. You decided that was irrational on her part. Is that true?"

"Uh," he looked at Elizabeth searching for the answer there, but her expression was cool. "Yes," he said finally.

"I bet you were angry at Miss Campbell for telling Elizabeth you didn't love her," Alexis mused. "In fact you testified you were angry at her."

"She had no right butting in to our relationship. If she had kept her mouth shut Elizabeth and I would be married right now, and this mess would have never happened."

"You're right you would have succeeded into tricking Elizabeth into marrying you," Alexis agreed. "But Gia Campbell interfered didn't she," she moved closer to Lucky. "That had to make you mad. So mad in fact, you wrecked your mother's house didn't you?"

"I was upset," Lucky admitted tersely.

"Mad enough that you threatened Gia Campbell?"

"I was angry."

"You're a photographer correct?"

"What?" Jarred by the new topic he looked at her blankly.

"You're employed at Deception as a photographer, isn't that correct?"

"Yes."

"And as that photographer, your primary responsibility is to take pictures of Gia Campbell, is that correct?"

"Yes," Lucky began to breathe a little easier.

"Do you ever bring your work home with you? I mean pictures of Miss Campbell?"

"Yes, sometimes."

"Did you ever bring your work to Miss Webber's studio?" Alexis asked casually.

"I guess, she would paint and I would check stills," Lucky shrugged.

"Do you have a key to Miss Webber's studio?"

"Yes."

"What happens when you get mad Mr. Spencer? Do you lash out at people?"

Lucky jolted at the abrupt change in questioning. "What?"

Alexis picked up a file from her desk. "I have a police report here, detailing an incident involving you and Nikolas Cassadine. It seems you got mad at Mr. Cassadine and had a fight. He ended up falling down a flight of stairs and being admitted to the hospital."

"Objection. Your honor things that happened to Mr. Spencer years ago, have no bearing on what is happening now. In fact this whole line of questioning, has no relevance to the charges against Miss Webber."

"You're honor the defense contends that someone is setting Miss Webber up. Whether you believe that is up to you, but we should be allowed to provide evidence supporting our claims," Alexis countered.

"You may continue," The Judge ordered.

"That was a long time ago," Lucky defended himself before she had a chance to talk. "Nikolas and I get along fine now."

"I bet he's relieved to hear that," Alexis moved closer. "You got mad at Jason Morgan once, and ended up attacking him with a knife, correct?" She moved closer to Lucky.

"Yes, but," Lucky began to rub his head. All these questions were confusing him.

"You got angry at Gia Campbell, what did you do to her?" Alexis asked. 

"Nothing," Lucky shouted and surged to his feet.

"Be seated," the Judge ordered.

Alexis backed away from him and looked at the judge. Who was frowning at Lucky. She had damaged Lucky's credibility, but she wanted it all gone. "You originally fell in love with Miss Webber, when you helped her overcome a traumatic incident, isn't that correct?"

Elizabeth tensed in her chair, she felt something touch her hand and looked down, and saw Jason's arm sticking through the bar, his hand next to hers, grateful she took it.

"Yes." Lucky said cautiously being wary of a trap.

"You're big push since Elizabeth walked away from the wedding is to recreate the past. Isn't that true?" Alexis asked.

"Yes, rebuilding our relationship, remembering the good times."

She nodded thoughtfully. "But Elizabeth has been resistant to that hasn't she?"

"Yes," Lucky nodded. "That's why I know she hasn't been acting like herself, because she hasn't wanted to give me another chance."

"That must have hurt you."

"Yes, but I knew she was hurt too."

"Did it make you upset?" Alexis asked.

"Sometimes," he nodded.

"So you've been trying to recreate things from the past, and she has been resistant, wanting to look at the future instead," Alexis moved so she was shielding Elizabeth from his view. "But a future wouldn't have you in it, would it?"

"Of course I would be in her future, we're a permanent lock."

"A permanent lock, one that was partially formed because you once helped Miss Webber through one of the worst times in her life."

"Yes," Lucky nodded enthusiastically. "Exactly we're permanent because of the past."

"But you're permanent lock was broken, when you fell out of love with her, wasn't it?"

"I didn't fall out of love with her, I was brainwashed and they took my memories of loving her away."

"So you don't remember the past?"

"No I remember, I just can't remember the feelings, that's what's so frustrating." Lucky scratched at the fuzz on his chin.

"So since you can't remember the past maybe you decided to recreate it, instead," Alexis theorized. "She fell in love with you originally when you helped her through a bad time. Now she was going through a bad time again, but this time it was one of your making."

"Is there a question coming anytime soon?" Attler called out crossly.

"So you needed another problem for Elizabeth, one you could help her fix. One you could fix for her. Right?"

Lucky didn't answer.

"That is what you've said to Elizabeth every day since the accident isn't it? That you would fix this for her, if she would forgive you? Isn't it?"

"Elizabeth how could you tell her?" Lucky tilted his head to look past Alexis at her.

Alexis shifted. "How could you fix it for her Lucky?"

"I just meant I would help her," Lucky brushed at the tears on his eyelashes.

"But how could you?"

"Objection asked and answered." Attler got to his feet.

"Could you fix it, because you were the one framing her in the first place?" Alexis asked. "You wanted her back, she was saying no. You were mad at Gia for ruining everything. You thought of a way to get even with Gia, and also to get Elizabeth back. All you had to do was frame her for attempted murder." Alexis spoke quickly. "Right Lucky."

Lucky could only shake his head. "No I couldn't do that to her."

"Like you couldn't try to kill your own father?" Alexis asked.

"Objection." Attler cried.

"I have no further questions your honor." Alexis said.

"The witness is excused."

Alexis looked from Lucky's miserable expression to the Judge's thoughtful one, then turned and saw the furious expression on Attler's face. Overall she thought that had gone pretty well. She had definitely shattered Lucky's credibility and also pointed a finger in his direction as the person responsible for this. She smiled at Jax who gave her the thumb's up, then moved on to Luke. 

He knew she had to go after Lucky. He had been involved in the planning stages. But he hadn't known that she was going to try to portray Lucky as the guilty party. Luke's face was expressionless, which surprised her, his eyes were locked on his son and it looked like he was trying to puzzle something out.

Lucky, feeling extremely violated, remained in the witness box for another minute. He finally got to his feet and began to shuffle towards the gallery. He looked at Elizabeth with a pleading look on his face, but she looked away. His eye fell on her hand, which was hidden by Jason's, and his gut clenched, with a sigh he moved into the courtroom and took a seat by his brother.

"Does the state have anything further?" The Judge asked.

"No your honor, the State rests." Attler replied.

"Very well," the Judge looked at his watch. "Call your first witness Counselor."

Alexis got to her feet, round two was about to begin. "The defense calls Foster Burbank to the stand."

****

~Docks~

"When will you get in town?" Roscoe asked.

__

"We should be there in an hour. We're heading straight for the court."

"Morgan will be there, it should be interesting."

__

"I know, look she's coming I need to go," he replied and hung up.

Roscoe studied the water thoughtfully, soon all of Port Charles would be his. Courtney's plan was a good one, but a man had to hedge his bets. Plan b was a doozy, and it would be arriving in an hour. He couldn't wait for the fireworks to begin.


	8. A brand new day

Disclaimer: I don't own them, I merely use them.

Feedback: Would be nice but I am not holding my breath.

****

Web of Deceit

Part VIII

****

~Courthouse~

"I can't believe Lucky did that," Bobbie said with a disgusted shake of her head. If looks could kill her nephew would be dead right now. "What the hell was he thinking?"

"I'll tell you Barbara Jean, I don't know," Luke replied. "And that worries me."

"I owe Elizabeth an apology," Bobbie murmured.

"How ya figure that?"

"After the wedding that wasn't she stayed with me, and I encouraged her to give Lucky a second chance," Bobbie groaned. "And I wasn't very understanding of her feelings. I kept thinking of the boy he was, instead of letting myself see the man he has become, and I didn't want her to quit on him. But now," she looked at her watch. "I need to get to the hospital. Tell Elizabeth I'm thinking of her."

"Sure," Luke offered his sister a smile as she kissed his cheek and left.

"Luke?" Alexis snapped.

"Natasha?" Luke moved over a seat so he could join Elizabeth, Jason, Audrey, Sarah, Jax and Alexis.

"Are you sure about the information you have on Foster Burbank?" Alexis asked, looking over the material carefully. She didn't have much to go on, but his information was critical for her case.

"Of course it's solid," Luke looked affronted at the suggestion that he could be wrong. 

"Well since it's for Elizabeth," Alexis sighed, "I guess I'll have to trust you."

Luke grimaced. "Trust? A Cassadine trusts me? And I had such high hopes for you."

"Luke," Elizabeth touched his arm. "Are you okay?"

Teasing expression gone he touched her hand. "Isn't that my question darlin?"

Elizabeth kept her voice low, so her words were heard by Luke only. "I know that couldn't have been easy for you to hear."

"No, but I don't think they were any easier for you to hear either. And if pointing out to the whole world what an ass my son is, will get you out of this mess, I'll call the hack Veronica Bowels at WLPC myself."

"It's Veronica Bowles," she corrected with a smile.

"Bowels, Bowles they mean the same thing. They both describe her profession."

"I'm glad you're here with me. I can't tell you what your belief means, especially now after," she trailed off thinking of the telegram she had received from her own parents. It had been very brief. They were sorry about her predicament, and hoped she got herself out of it, but it was a critical time for them and they couldn't come to see her. Would she please conduct herself accordingly and try to keep their names out of the press? Seeing those cold words in black and white had hurt her badly, even tough she had been expecting it.

Her eyes moved to her Grandmother, and Audrey smiled at her, before continuing her conversation with Sarah. She had never seen her grandmother as mad as she had been when she had seen the telegram. Sarah had told her that she had gone home and totally ripped their parents by phone. Basically she had told them that they were no longer welcome in her home.

"I'm afraid you're stuck with me darlin, Laura calls me a fungus that you just can't get rid of," Luke explained hoping to get her to smile again.

"I don't want to get rid of you." She replied before turning her attention to Alexis and Jason's conversation.

"Other than Burbank, I only have two other witnesses, and one of them is Courtney," Alexis was saying. "I got confirmation that she was served, but I have no idea if she will show up, and what if anything she will say if she does show up. I will probably have to treat her as a hostile witness."

"What about me? I still think I should testify." Elizabeth asked.

"No, you're memory is still shaky, Attler will cross-examine you and try to dismantle you like I did Lucky."

"But I'm telling the truth," Elizabeth pressed.

"Well so was Lucky for a lot of it, but I still made him look like an," she hesitated.

"Asshole?" Sarah offered.

"Jerk?" Audrey proposed.

"Clueless." Jax put in his vote.

"Himself?" Jason stated earning a glare from Luke.

"An idiot," Luke finally chimed in.

Alexis smirked. "So we can't put you on the stand, Gia doesn't remember, so we don't have that many witnesses to present."

"What about character witnesses?" Audrey asked.

"Ideally we use characters witnesses to help during the sentencing phase. To show the court that although this person was found guilty they don't deserve 20 years in prison," Alexis saw the older woman pale. "I hope we won't need any at all."

"So we have Burbank, then Carol, then Courtney. And that's it?" Luke asked.

"I'm afraid so. Look I did a lot of damage in dismantling Lucky, also in getting the valet's testimony thrown out, I also managed to point out that the other paper evidence the People has offered can't be conclusively tied to Elizabeth by fingerprints or handwriting. Burbank and Carol will help with that as well."

"What aren't you saying?" Jason asked.

"Longer's testimony. It was rock solid and I couldn't break it. He is the sole eyewitness that said he saw Elizabeth driving the car, he saw her drive it into the tree deliberately. So far we haven't been able to break that," Alexis rubbed at her nose in frustration. "He was so believable that even with the doubt I've raised, the judge could still rule that she's guilty."

"Bloodsuckers." Luke cried loudly, drawing attention from others in the gallery and a warning glare from the Judge.

Alexis knew she had to phrase this carefully, too many people were listening, but she had to ask. "You wouldn't have happened to come across anything about Mr. Longer that we don't already know, have you?" She addressed Jason with her eyes only. "Because if you or anyone else has, and that happens to find it's way into my licensed investigator's hands, within the next hour or so, it would be a good thing."

"People are working on it." Jason replied.

"That's the best you got Junior?" Luke demanded.

Before Jason could reply his attention was caught by someone who entered the courtroom. "Excuse me," he moved over to Benny who was shifting nervously by the door, holding a file. "What do you have?"

"God couldn't he at least try to be discreet?" Alexis mumbled.

"I don't think he knows what that word means." Jax informed her. 

"Remind me again, why exactly are you here?" Alexis asked.

"Moral support," Jax grinned. "Besides it's the first time I've wanted you to win something since you represented me, that is," he leaned closer and lowered his voice. "Do you know how strange it is for me? I actually want Morgan to succeed at something. If this keeps up I'm going to need therapy."

"We may have something," Jason wasted no time when he returned. "I need to leave for awhile to get the material, but it should help with Longer."

"What is it?" Alexis demanded.

"I'll get it first then bring it back." Jason stepped towards Elizabeth and drew her to the side out of earshot of the others. "Will you be okay?"

Elizabeth nodded even though her stomach rolled.

"I'll be back as soon as I can," his hand squeezed hers trying to offer comfort.

Elizabeth looked down at their joined hands. He had scars on the back of his hand, but it was strong, solid, warm, and she didn't want to let it go. "Hurry?"

"I promise," he hated to walk away from her, but he knew he had too. He stepped back to the others, and gave her hand to Luke with a warning glare.

"Jason if you find actual evidence," Alexis frowned when the door opened behind him, admitting the Bailiff and her witness. "We don't have time to find my investigator, but you can't give it to me. Call Luke, give it to him and have him give it to me."

Jason nodded and was gone.

Luke pouted in his chair. "I guess that means my reputation is better than Morgan's," he focused on Sarah. "How did that happen? How did I get respectable? It was that time I was elected mayor of Port Charles, wasn't it? I knew that would come back and bite me on the ass."

"Counselor," Judge Irons bellowed out. "Now that the witness is here, you may begin."

Alexis patted Elizabeth's hand and got to her feet. "Mr. Burbank can you state your name, address and occupation for the Court?"

~*~*~*~

"Have you had enough time to examine the word processor?" Alexis asked.

"Yes," a slightly out of breath Mr. Burbank waddled back to his seat in the witness box. To call Foster Burbank a large man, would be like calling the Titanic a boat. Large just didn't describe either one of them, the ship or the man. The chair creaked loudly as it bowed under his girth, and he barely squeezed through the opening to fit in the witness box.

"Do you recognize it?" Alexis asked.

"Yes, it's from my store," Burbank replied as he began to rub the condensation from his lenses. "My mark is on the upper right hand corner, it's where we mark all machines that come from our store."

"Please let the record show that Mr. Burbank has identified People's Exhibit 13 as coming from his store, _High End Deals_," Alexis directed the Court.

"So noted."

"Do you happen to know when that machine was purchased from your store?"

"I'll check my records." Foster Burbank may be considered something of a slob, he considered no piece of clothing he wore suitable, until it had mustard stains on it, but he was meticulous when it came to his records. He opened a zippered pouch he had brought with him, and pulled out a sheaf of papers, each in their own color-coded folders. He went immediately to the one, for that model of machine, and then compared the serial number he had retrieved from the machine a few minutes ago, to the ones on the listing. "It's right here. That machine was purchased on January 3 at 7:27 pm, it was a cash transaction, and the sale was made by myself."

"Are you sure of the time and the date?"

Burbank glared at the insult. "My records are immaculate. I check every register, every computer to make sure it has the same time as Greenwich Mean Time. Every morning I check it, and every evening I check it. My records are precise." He held out the receipt. "It says right here it was purchased at 7:27 pm on January 3rd so that was when it was sold."

Alexis held up her hands to ward off his continued attack. "I didn't mean to insinuate anything else. Since you made the sale, do you remember who purchased the machine?"

"No. I care nothing about who buys my machines, only the money they spend and the machines."

"So you don't remember seeing Miss Webber in your store?" Alexis pressed.

"No."

"Would you mind looking at her for a minute?" Alexis requested, "And then answering again?"

With a deep sigh Burbank focused on Elizabeth for a long minute. "No I don't remember her. All I know is that machine was bought on January 3rd at 7:27 pm and was bought with cash."

"Thank you Mr. Burbank," Alexis looked towards the Judge. "I have nothing further for this witness."

"Cross?" Judge Irons asked Attler.

"No your honor, though we would like to commend Ms. Davis for finding out where Miss Webber purchased the machine, now we all know where to go to get a good deal."

Alexis smiled nastily, Attler had no idea the mistake he had just made in trying to be flip.

"You're excused Mr. Burbank," the Judge stated. "Call your next witness."

"The defense calls Carol Baxter to the stand."

Elizabeth couldn't help but tense when Carol walked in, she smiled in Elizabeth's direction then moved to the stand. Elizabeth shifted uneasily in her chair. She knew it was necessary for Carol to testify, and yet she still felt uncomfortable. She still felt what happened to her, was her private business, and didn't want everyone to know it. Yet it was about to be made public by her own request.

"I'll try to keep it simple," Alexis whispered. "But it is necessary."

Elizabeth nodded and glanced back towards the door, hoping to see Jason. She hadn't wanted to depend on him too much, but she was. Her eyes met Luke and he offered a supporting smile, one she shakily returned before turning to face Carol.

~*~*~*~

"Miss Baxter, you stated you work at a bank, is that where you know Elizabeth Webber from?" Alexis asked after the preliminaries had been taken care of.

"No, I met her through the 5th Street Foundation."

"What is that?" Alexis asked.

"It's a non-profit rape crises center. We provide counseling, information, defense classes, everything we can to help women who have been violated," Carol explained briefly.

"And you met Miss Webber there?"

"Yes she's a volunteer there. Elizabeth like a lot of women, go to the center to help out others who have found themselves in the same situation they were once in. She does a lot of phone counseling, as well as walk-ins. Sometimes we get women calling, who just need to speak to someone who has been through what they are going through now. Elizabeth has been volunteering there for several years now," she smiled at Elizabeth. "She's one of our best volunteers.

Lucky gasped at that, and quickly looked at Elizabeth expecting to see her in tears. Carol had admitted in not so many words that Elizabeth had been raped. He frowned when he saw Elizabeth sitting there, her head held high, her focus on Carol. She looked strong and okay with the fact that everyone, including Amy who had gasped loudly, now knew what had happened to her.

"Could you tell me if Elizabeth was there on the evening of January 3rd?" Alexis asked.

"Yes she was."

Attler leaned forward in his seat and began to take notes at this unexpected admission.

"Do you know what hours she worked?" 

"She came in about 5:30, I know because I had only just arrived. She was a little upset herself, so for the first hour or so, we talked. Then she got on the phones. We left the same time that night, I dropped her off at home at 12:30."

"And you are sure that Miss Webber was there the whole night?"

"Yes." Carol said immediately.

"Thank you Miss Baxter," Alexis headed for her seat. "You're witness," she informed Attler as she passed him.

"Miss Baxter," Attler got to his feet. "January 3rd was a long time ago. Are you sure you have the correct date?"

"I'm positive," Carol replied firmly.

"Forgive me if I find that a little hard to believe, if you do this night after night, isn't there a chance that you are confusing one of the nights?"

"No. But if it will make you feel better, you can look at the records I brought. They show who was volunteering when and at what time." She opened her briefcase and pulled out some papers.

Alexis grinned at the expression on Attler's face. At least Dara was prepared, this guy obviously wasn't.

"Thank you." He took the papers reluctantly.

"Since my learned counselor has asked for proof of those records, I would like them admitted in evidence as Defense Exhibit 5, I believe that is the next number." Alexis stood up and held out copies of the records.

"So noted."

"Where is the 5th Street Foundation located?"

"5th Street," Carol replied with a raise of her eyebrow.

The courtroom laughed and Attler glared at them. "5th and what?"

"Oh 5th and Chapel."

Luke jerked when he felt his hip began to vibrate, he looked down and saw the light on his phone was flashing signaling he had a call, and he quickly got up and moved out of the room.

Attler placed that on the mental map in his head then compared it to the location of _High End Deals_. They were across town from each other. Elizabeth Webber would have needed at least an hour to an hour and a half to get there, purchase the machine and return. "Are you sure Miss Webber was there the whole night."

"Positive."

"Again I must ask how you are so sure, that she didn't slip out for an hour or so?"

"I told you she was upset when she first came in, so I took the phone next to her, in breaks between calls we talked. She told me about what had happened at her aborted wedding, and what had been going on in the previous few months, she had been gone. I could tell she needed a friend, so I was there for her." Carol explained.

Attler was getting desperate. "How about her dinner bre…"

Carol shook her head and cut him off. "We ordered out for Chinese, and ate at the desks. I'm sorry to disappoint you, but Elizabeth and I were there all night, until I dropped her off at her studio around 12:30."

Defeated Attler sighed and moved to his desk. "No further questions."

"Redirect?" The Judge asked.

"Just a clarification," Alexis got to her feet. "On the evening of January 3rd, from 5:30 to around 12:30, with the exception of maybe five minutes here or there, Elizabeth Webber was with you. Is that correct?"

"Yes."

"Thank you Miss Baxter," Alexis said in dismissal. "Could the court reporter please read back the portion of Mr. Burbank's testimony as to when the word processor was purchased. The word processor the People's experts have stated was used to type the journal entries threatening and stalking Miss Campbell? The journal entries the People contends were written by my client?"

The Judge gave her a warning glare but nodded at the court reporter,

The court reporter scrolled back up on her machine then began to speak in a droning voice.

"Question: Do you happen to know when that machine was purchased from your store?"

"Answer: I'll check my records. It's right here. That machine was purchased on January 3 at 7:27 pm, it was a cash transaction, and the sale was made by myself." When she finished she sat back down.

"Funny how she was able to be two places at once." Alexis observed.

"Objection the Counselor is now editorializing," Attler objected.

"Merely commenting," Alexis corrected. She turned when the door opened behind her and Luke walked in nodding his head. "You're honor I request a five minute recess before I call my next witness."

"Very well. This court is adjourned until 3:15." The Judge hit the gavel and quickly left the courtroom.

"What have you got?" Alexis demanded.

"Junior came through." Luke grinned widely.

~*~*~*~

"I don't like the way that looks," Nikolas commented.

Lucky looked over at the defense table, they did look very excited, and Jason was right in the middle of things. "Maybe they found something to clear her."

"You mean Jason manufactured something," Nikolas corrected.

Lucky focused on his brother. "I heard you bribed a witness. I don't think you should try to be morally superior. You tried to get someone to lie."

"No I didn't," Nikolas corrected. "When I found out Jason was in town I freaked. I worried that he might intimidate or bribe the witnesses to get her off. So I paid him to tell the truth. I paid him to come to Court and testify to what he told the police. He told the police he heard her threaten to kill Gia. That is what I wanted him to tell the Court," he explained earnestly. "I never told him to lie, I wanted him to tell the truth."

"Well you go your wish, he told the truth," Lucky replied. "And guess what? The truth wasn't what you thought it was."

Nikolas nodded, he hated to think it, but he was beginning to wonder if he had been wrong about Elizabeth all along. That thought was uncomfortable for him, because of the way he had treated her since the accident. "You believed him too. You even testified against her."

"I never thought I was testifying against her I thought I was helping her," Lucky defended himself.

"Somehow I doubt she thinks that."

"All rise."

The Judge re-entered the Courtroom. "Be seated," he ordered settling his papers on the chair. "Are you ready to proceed?"

Alexis stepped back to let a cart with a TV/VCR on it go by. "We are your honor. The defense recalls Curtis Longer to the stand."

~*~*~*~

"So after rehearing your earlier testimony, do you have anything to add, or any changes you would like to make to it?" Alexis asked after the court reporter had re-read his earlier words.

"No. That was the truth. I saw her," Longer pointed to Elizabeth. "Ram into a tree, around 10:15 on February 1st, I called 911 and reported it, and then checked the car. She was the driver and semi-conscious the other woman was unconscious. That's it."

"Just checking," Alexis moved to her desk and picked up a videotape. "Are you familiar with the Shortstop out on Route 5?"

"It's a gas station right?"

"Yes it is. They have the pay at the pump feature. You know what else they have?"

He shook his head.

"Camera's trained on the pump. Cameras with the date stamp feature activated. It helps to prosecute those driver's who drive off without paying."

"So."

"You drive 1998 Ford Ranger, license plate New York KLM 4963 is that correct?"

"Yes."

"And you were driving that the night of February 1st correct?"

"Yes."

"And you witnessed the accident and phoned it in to 911 at 10:17 pm, is that also correct?"

"Yes," he said with a roll of his eyes.

"I'm curious then," Alexis stepped closer. "How were you able to see the accident when at the moment it occurred you were purchasing gas at Shortstop, over 5 miles away?"

Longer's eyes widened in surprise.

"We have copies of a sales receipt. Your credit card was used at Shortstop at 10:18 pm, to purchase 11 gallons of Super Premium unleaded."

"Uh," he swallowed hard. "It must have been my girlfriend."

"Really. You know what? Why don't we check?" Alexis smiled and waved the videotape. "As Defense Exhibit 6 we offer this tape that was removed from the Shortstop video vault, it contains the timeframe we're concerned with, which was February 1st."

Attler began to snap his knuckles. A habit he was trying to break, but a habit he always did when he was nervous. Alexis was too confident, and Longer, his jewel witness, was beginning to perspire.

Alexis put the tape in the VCR, it had been cued to the right time, and pushed play. "Well what do you know?" she commented when Curtis Longer appeared on the screen. "It is you," she peered closely at the screen. "You look cold." The man on the screen began to stamp his feet kicking off the snow.

Alexis pointed to the time/date stamp on the bottom of the screen. "It says here, this was February 1st at 10:14 pm."

Attler reached for his water pitcher as he began to see his witness slip away.

"Interesting," Alexis stepped away from the screen and looked from the videotaped Curtis Longer who was cleaning his windows, to the live Curtis Longer who was fidgeting in his seat. "Oh look what are you doing now?" Video Curtis had just looked at his watch and began taking off his gloves, and pulled out his cell phone. "I wonder who your calling."

She moved back to her table and a tape recorder that was there. "I have an idea."

Attler rolled his eyes at her theatrics but couldn't object, because he knew the Judge wouldn't allow it.

"Let's see if I can get this right," she eyed the screen and waited. Video Curtis was being nice to her, he was facing the camera as he waited for someone to answer the phone. She hit play, and for once luck with electronics was with her, because it was perfect timing.

__

"911 what is the nature of your emergency?"

"I just saw an accident."

Curtis Longer's voice came out of the tape recording, at the same time Video Curtis mouthed the words on the tape. It was quickly apparent to all who he was speaking too.

__

"Where are you sir?"

"I'm out on Route 5 near the Lighthouse turnoff, and I just saw a car ram into a tree."

At this point Video Curtis had moved to the gas pump and took out his receipt, his mouth was moving the entire time.

__

"Can I have your name?"

"It's Curtis Longer. I need to check on them. I see two women in the car, but no one's moving. Please send help."

With that Video Curtis climbed in his car and drove off, and the 911 tape recording stopped.

Alexis hit the stop button and turned back to face Curtis Longer. "I'm confused? Did you see the accident that happened five miles away, in your windshield?"

The courtroom burst into laughter, and the judge called for order.

"Would you like to change your story?" Alexis asked.

Longer ran a hand through his hair and closed his eyes for a long minute, he knew he had been beaten. "Yes."

"I thought so."

"I was supposed to be out on Route 5 at 10:00, but I was running late. I looked at my watch, I had been told to call by 10:15, and I knew I wouldn't make it, so I called from the gas station."

"Told? Who told you?"

"I don't know. I met a guy about a week before, he offered me $30,000 if I would witness an 'accident', I needed the money so I agreed."

"Do you know who the man was who approached you?"

"No I never saw him before or since. After that first contact, I got instructions by phone. I was paid $15,000 on February 1st, and was supposed to be paid the rest, after I testified today." Longer admitted, he could kiss that money goodbye.

"What exactly were you hired to say?"

"That Elizabeth Webber was driving, and she deliberately ran into the tree."

Elizabeth closed her eyes as the courtroom began to buzz, she was beginning to believe that this whole nightmare might be over soon.

"What did you see when you got to the accident site?" Alexis asked.

"The accident had already happened, I saw two women in the car."

"Anything else?"

"Yes," he admitted. "I saw another woman running away."

That caught Alexis' attention. "Did you recognize her?"

"No she was too far, I have no idea what she looked like. All I saw was long blonde hair. She disappeared in the trees, and I didn't pursue her."

Alexis realized the description matched Courtney, but it also matched several other women in town. Her gaze fell on Nikolas and an uneasy feeling came over her. "Do you see the man who originally approached you in the courtroom today?"

Longer searched the courtroom before answering. "No he's not here."

"Thank you, nothing further."

"Mr. Attler?" The Judge asked.

Attler discreetly popped the antacid tablet in his mouth. "No your honor."

Elizabeth glanced over at Lucky, both him and Nikolas looked stunned. She shook her head and looked at her gram who was smiling, then Jason, who took her hand again. "Thank you."

****

~Hallway~

"Sonny I'm afraid. What if they arrest me?" Courtney asked.

"I will help you. I know you're not used to this, but you need to know that I will always help you. You're my sister, my family, I will help you out no matter what." Sonny squeezed her hand in support. "But there are two people in there I care about, one I consider my family as well. And I've hurt them badly. I have to stop that. To do that you need to tell the truth."

Courtney seethed inside but kept her expression cool. "Okay I trust you."

"Trust him? That would be your worst mistake." A female voice called out sarcastically.

Sonny turned in recognition to the voice and saw Emily Quartermaine slowly making her way down the hall. She was moving slowly a cane in one hand, her other was stuck through the arm of a young brown-haired man that he had never seen before. "Emily it's good to see you."

"Spare me," Emily cried. "You make me sick Sonny."

"Emily," Sonny tried to interrupt.

"Save it Sonny you can't weasel your way out of things this time. I forgave you once for betraying Jason and running him out of town, I even became friendly with you again. I thought you had sunk to a new low when you hung my brother on a meat hook and stole his son away from him. In a way I could almost expect that from you, because you've made no secret that you hate AJ. But you said you liked Elizabeth. Well your brand of like is trying to get her sent to jail," she eyed a wide-eyed Courtney critically. "I hope you know what your getting into, because he will turn on you if you breathe wrong, and you'll find yourself ran out of town, beaten in an alley, hung on a meat hook, in jail, or maybe even dead when he's through with you."

It was hard but he didn't flinch. He knew he would never forget her words, though, each one found their way past his barriers. "You don't have all the information Emily."

"I have enough to know you disgust me," Emily retorted and began to move again. "I need to get inside."

The man beside her with the light green eyes nodded. "I left the lights on in the auto. I'll be in a minute," his Irish brogue sounded musical in the nearly empty hallway. "Can you get in okay by yourself?"

"I'll help you," Sonny offered holding out his hand.

"No." Emily snapped, moving away slowly but surely. "I can manage."

Sonny sighed heavily as he studied the set shoulders of Emily. When he turned to look at Courtney his eyes were sad. "I'll tell Alexis you're here, and ready to tell the truth."

Courtney nodded reluctantly, and watched him disappear. "You can come back now Aiden," she called out when the door closed.

Aiden moved around the corner. "Hey Traci, long time no see." The Irish brogue was gone, his accent was now American.

"What the hell are you doing with Morgan's sister?" Courtney demanded. "You're brother is going to kill you when he finds out."

"What makes you think Roscoe doesn't already know?" Aiden asked moving towards the door. "I'll be seeing you luv," he informed her slipping easily into the accent, and affable charm that was his trademark. He opened the door, but before he could go inside, a woman hurried past him. What was so unusual about her was the fact she was dressed all in black, including a black shawl covering her face.

Alexis looked down at the paper that Sonny had just handed her. _Courtney is ready to tell the truth_. She looked back up at him, and he nodded in confirmation.

"Ms. Davis are you ready to proceed?"

"Your honor the defense calls…"

"Wait I remember," Gia Campbell called out as soon as she entered the courtroom.

"Gia," Nikolas was by her side immediately. "What are you doing here are you okay?"

"I'm fine," she clutched his hand though. "I remember what happened that night," she stepped forward. "I want to testify."

"Are you sure?" Alexis asked.

"Gia it's too much." Nikolas tried to sway her.

"I need to do this."

Alexis turned and addressed the Court. "The defense calls Gia Campbell."

Gia moved to the witness stand, keeping a firm grip on her shawl, hiding the bandages and scars on her face. She could hear the whispering in the courtroom and her hand shook slightly but she kept moving.

~*~*~*~

Nikolas gripped the arms of his chair tightly, keeping his eyes trained on his fiancée, he could hear the tiredness in her voice, and wanted nothing more than to get her out of there, away from all the prying eyes. But he couldn't. He wanted nothing more than to protect her, and he couldn't. That was what was killing him. He hadn't been able to protect, not since the night the accident had happened.

"We were getting ready to leave," Gia was saying. "It was strange, Elizabeth and I were actually getting along, probably because she was mad at Lucky and I was mad at Nikolas, and we picked on them, instead of each other for a change," she shook her head. "Like I said we were leaving when she arrived."

"Who?" Alexis asked.

"Courtney, I don't remember her last name, she's Sonny's sister though." Gia explained.

Sonny leaned against the wall and listened to her testimony. In a way he was glad that it seemed like Courtney's testimony wouldn't be needed. For some reason he wondered if she would have told the truth. He hated that he doubted her, but he did. He hadn't confronted her about sleeping with AJ yet. But he had asked her if she had any more secrets, and she had said no. So he knew she was still lying. He was gradually coming to believe that Courtney was more like Janine than he had thought.

"What happened next?"

"It's a little fuzzy, but she wanted us to make a toast," Gia closed her eyes trying to pull the memory out.

__

"A toast for the road." Courtney said holding out a glass to each of them.

"To men," Elizabeth raised her glass. "Who the hell needs them?"

"I do," Gia smirked. "It gets lonely in bed without them."

"So what happened next?" Alexis asked after a minute.

"We were going to go to another club. Elizabeth said she felt a little dizzy, so Courtney volunteered to drive," Gia answered slowly. She was a little fuzzy on the details herself.

"Are you sure that Courtney was the one driving?" Alexis asked quietly.

"I remember looking in the backseat when Elizabeth sort of moaned. She said her head and her stomach felt weird. My own head felt strange, and I turned to look at her. I can remember seeing her in the backseat, and then the car swerved," her voice broke. "And there was screaming and pain. I remember pain."

"That's enough." Nikolas cried out getting to his feet. "Please Alexis, stop this."

"Sit down." The Judge ordered.

Alexis touched Gia's hand. "Thank you Gia. You did fine," she turned around and shooting Attler a warning glare she spoke. "Your witness."

Attler got to his feet, he could hear the people buzzing behind him, and focused on the woman shrouded in black on the stand. If he went after her, he would be crucified and he knew it. "I have no questions your honor."

Gia stepped down from the witness box, pausing by the defense table, she looked at Elizabeth. "I'm sorry I didn't remember sooner."

"I don't care," Elizabeth answered honestly. "You remembered when you could."

Gia moved on and took a seat next to Nikolas.

"You're honor to sum up," Alexis began. "Both major witnesses called by the People, have admitted to being paid. The journals were written on a machine that was purchased, when Elizabeth Webber was miles away. The journals and photographs do not have her fingerprints on them. And finally we have heard from another person in the car, the woman Elizabeth Webber is on trial for trying to kill, and she admits that Elizabeth wasn't driving. I don't know why were here."

Judge Irons looked at the prosecutor. "Do you have a motion to make?"

Attler got slowly to his feet, his perfect record was about to be history and he hated that. "In light of the new evidence. The People move that all charges against Miss Webber be dropped."

"So ordered," the Judge agreed. "Miss Webber you are hereby free to leave. And on behalf of the State of New York and it's people. I apologize for everything you were submitted to in these last few weeks. You were a victim of a rush to persecution," he eyed Attler at that remark. "Had there been more time, you would have never been charged. Please understand this is not how the legal system normally behaves. Once again I apologize and you are free to leave. Case dismissed." He hit the gavel once and was gone.

The Courtroom erupted and Elizabeth found herself being hugged hard by her Grandmother and squealing sister.

"Good work Counselor," Jax congratulated her with a hug. "Doesn't it feel good to get someone deserving off for a change?"

"You're shadow's here," Alexis told him through narrowed eyes.

"Who?"

"Jax I've been looking everywhere for you." Skye Chandler Quartermaine caught his arm.

Alexis smiled and moved away, her eyes met Sonny's and he nodded his head in congratulation before stepping out into the hall.

"God Elizabeth I am so glad you're free, even though Nikolas and Lucky tried to fix it so you weren't," Sarah exclaimed hugging her sister again. "I didn't think we'd get done so soon, but since we did, if it's okay with you, I'm going to go to the hospital and catch the end of orientation."

"Go," Elizabeth said quickly.

"Okay, Gram can you give me a ride?"

"Well," Audrey looked at Elizabeth.

"Go on Gram," Elizabeth encouraged her. "But if it's okay with you, I'd like to stay at your house tonight."

"Okay with me," Audrey blinked at the tears and hugged her tightly. "I would love that."

"Elizabeth, Sarah," Nikolas interrupted them. "Mrs. Hardy."

"You got a hell of a lot of nerve," Sarah snapped. "After what you did, why are you even trying to talk to her?"

"What did he do?" Gia asked.

"I once thought I loved you," Sarah shook her head. "I'm so glad I wasn't really in love. Stay the hell away from my sister," she spotted Lucky. "And that goes for you too Lucky."

"Sarah you better go," Elizabeth was a little surprised at her sister's vocal support, but she wasn't in the mood for any anger at the moment.

Sarah and Audrey walked past the trio without a word.

"Elizabeth," he tried again.

"Don't Nikolas," Elizabeth stepped back. "Can I call you sometime Gia?"

"I'd like that," Gia admitted. Obviously something had happened that she didn't know about. Something she had a feeling she wouldn't like. She tugged on Nikolas hand and began to lead him to the door. She wanted to get away from all the people anyway.

"You're father would have been proud of you today," Luke called after him. "You're mother would have been horrified."

Nikolas flinched and his gaze fell on Alexis, but she didn't speak to him. He opened the door and immediately shielded Gia from the waiting reporters.

"Elizabeth," Lucky reached out and she shied away. "You have to know I didn't mean that to happen."

"I look at you Lucky and I don't even know who you are. And for the first time since I met you, I have no desire to know you," she met his gaze squarely. "Goodbye Lucky."

"You can't mean that," horrified he reached out for her, and before Jason could move to intercept him, Luke did instead.

"You heard her Lucky, let's leave." Luke gripped his son by the arm.

"But…" he tried to break free of Luke's grip but couldn't.

"Bye darlin, I'll see you soon," Luke called. "Junior I'll be watching you," he warned Jason, propelling Lucky out of the door. "Natasha," he caught her hand and kissed it. "A pleasure as always."

"Get help Luke," Alexis tugged her hand free.

"Thank you again Alexis," Elizabeth said. "I don't think I would be going free without your help."

Alexis accepted the hug a bit awkwardly but found it felt good. Jax was right this was the best feeling she'd had in a long while. The last time she remembered feeling like this was when she had managed to get Jason visitation rights to Michael. "I had help. The biggest being your innocence, but Luke and Jason helped as well."

"And Gia," Elizabeth reminded her.

"I would have won without her," Alexis said confidently. "But I was glad she showed. I'll head off the reporters," with that she left.

"We're going to go too," Emily informed them, giving first Elizabeth a hug then her brother. "I'll be at the Port Charles Hotel, call me there."

Elizabeth nodded. "I will, nice meeting you Aiden."

"I'm glad everything worked out for you," Aiden replied, offering his arm to Emily. "Jason," he nodded his head.

Jason nodded back and studied the man with his sister, with interest. He'd only just met him, but he got a weird vibe from him. He'd have to check him out later, but first things first. "You look tired."

"I am, but tonight I think I might be able to sleep. I hope I will," she rubbed at her wrists, a habit she didn't like, and wondered how long she would have it.

"You will," he caught her hand, stilling her actions. "Are you ready to leave?"

"Definitely," she took a breath to prepare herself.

"Hold on tight and stay by my side." Jason told her, and opened the door walking out to the flash of light bulbs.

~*~*~*~

"God their like jackals." An out of breath Elizabeth complained. "Do you think we lost them?"

"For now," Jason looked over his shoulder and saw Sonny walking out of a room down the hall with Courtney. Their eyes met.

Elizabeth noticed his stillness and turned to look and saw them as well. She waited but no one said anything. Awkwardness descended among the four. Finally Jason broke his gaze with Sonny and turned to her holding out his hand. "Will you come with me?"

She took his hand without hesitation. "As long as we go nowhere."

Jason smiled slightly. "Fast." And without a word to Sonny he led her away.

Sonny felt like his right arm was being ripped off when he saw Jason and Elizabeth walk away from him without a backwards glance.

"Are you okay?" Courtney asked.

"I'm fine," he said roughly.

Courtney took his hand. "Don't worry Sonny you always have me. Even if Jason doesn't come back, you won't be alone." And that was just the way she wanted him.

Sonny nodded, took a final look down the hall, and then turned around. "We better get to the police station. They need you to make a statement."

"Do you think they'll charge me?" Courtney asked.

"I don't know," he shrugged. "We'll have to check with Alexis."

"Is she still your attorney?"

Sonny looked down the hall and saw Alexis speaking with a reporter. She met his eyes briefly then stepped away from the reporter. Jax detached himself from the wall and offered an arm. She hesitated for a second, then took his arm and walked away.

"I don't know Courtney."

AJ waited until they disappeared from view before moving around the corner. The last few minutes had been very interesting. Even though Courtney's plan had failed in most respects, it did look like it had worked on some levels. Sonny was being isolated. And it seemed like Jason was turning his back on him. He began to whistle as he moved down the hall. The strands of a _Brand New Day_ filled the air. He may have his son back sooner than he thought.

****

The End

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Author's Notes: I wrote this in response to a challenge on another board. It was written in soap style, hence the quick pacing and being more plot driven then character driven. I also left a lot of threads because a story idea like this could last on the show for months, and the after effects would take years, and ideally that is what the show wants. However, it is obviously not the case with GH these days, here they just like to throw characters in situations that have no point and we are supposed to care. 

Newsflash, look at the ratings, 3.3 and falling people don't care. Forcing new people at us right and left and again, telling me to care about them doesn't work either. So this was my answer a somewhat, I hope, entertaining way to tell a storyline that was being forced on us anyway.

For those who read it, thank you, for those who read it and told me what you think, I really appreciate it.

Stephanie


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